The Dragon Slayers of Fairy Tail
by insanemonkeyboy
Summary: Fairy Tail has 4 dragon slayers. So when Acnologia appears following the war with Grimoire heart, the dragon slayers decide it's time for them to take care of the dragon while everyone else escapes. How will this change things for Fairy Tail? Will the dragon slayers be left behind? Natsu x Wendy. Maybe some other pairings later on. Rating changed to M for violence and dark themes
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Fairy Tail. I don't own the characters. It all belongs to Hiro Mashima.

As you can probably tell from the summary, this story starts during the Tenroujima arc. Paring will be Natsu x Wendy.

This will also be the last story I start for a while. Hadn't planned on starting this, but I had the idea after browsing a few other fanfics and not seeing any like this, and it seemed to interesting to forego writing. Rated T right now, but that might change in future chapters. I'm not sure yet.

Anyway... Enjoy.**

* * *

 **—December, x784—**

"He's too powerful! We'll never beat him!"

Fairy Tail was beginning to panic as they saw their combined strength do zero damage to the enormous dragon. The dragon reared its head back, ready to attack.

"Laxus! Wendy! Gajeel!" Natsu roared. "We're dragon slayers, right? We'll take Acnologia! The rest of you get as far from this island as you can!"

"But…" Makarov started.

"No way!" Erza yelled. "We're staying here together!"

"We can't leave you to fight this beast alone!" Lucy cried.

Natsu turned back to his guild. He hated to do this, but he knew that he had to. Forcing his body to its maximum magic power, he entered the dragon force, causing an enormous fire dragon to appear to the other guild members around him as scales appeared on his body. "I said get going!" he roared. "We'll catch up with you when we can!"

Apparently they realized he was serious. Very serious. Finally Makarov gave the command. "You heard him, brats. None of us have magic that's meant to kill a dragon. Right now we just have to trust our dragon slayers!"

Natsu kept a tear back, not even daring to look at the other dragon slayers who stood courageously beside him. Slowly the guild left as they master had commanded. And the four dragon slayers turned, all ready to fight with their greatest power.

The dragon launched another attack at them, but the dragon slayers all managed to avoid his massive claws. "Fire Dragon's Sword Horn!" Natsu, still in dragon form, landed the attack on Acnologia's leg. As he fell back, he saw… blood?

"Way to go Natsu!" Laxus cheered. "Lightning Dragon's Roar!"

"Sky Dragon's Roar!"

"Iron Dragon's Roar!"

The three combined roars hit the injury, causing the dragon to bellow in pain. A sound that pierced the ears and shook the land, heard and felt even out on the ship where Doranbolt had just finished teleporting the last Fairy Tail member aboard.

 **~~~On the ship~~~**

"That sounded like it was hurt," Gildarts said in amazement.

"Well, they don't call it dragon slaying magic for nothing," Makarov said. "But I'm afraid that even all four of the brats together don't stand a chance. I only hope they can escape him."

As they spoke, the dragon lifted off, high into the sky. Immediately 3 of the four dragon slayers left the ground, speeding up toward the black dragon. But as the guild watched, Acnologia released his breath. There was a huge flash of light that enveloped the whole island. And when it was gone, the island was too.

Satisfied with its work, the dragon flew away as the members of Fairy Tail looked on in shock.

 **—x791—**

"Master Makarov, I have some news for you!" Warren exclaimed.

"What news?" Makarov asked.

"I just got a telepathic message from Pegasus. It seems there's some strange activity in the ethernanos around where Tenroujima should be.

"Tenroujima?..." The old man's eyes widened.

"Erza, Gray, Juvia, Lucy, Mira. Come with me!"

"Where are we going master," Gray called from the second floor.

"Tenroujima," Makarov answered.

"But Tenroujima's gone. We've long since given up searching…"

"Blue Pegasus has detected some strange activity around that area. We need to check it out immediately."

"Coming master," Gray said, and Juvia came down on his heels. Erzza, Lucy, and Mira joined them as well.

 **~~~In the ocean, where Tenroujima once was~~~**

"As I suspected, no sign of the island." Erza sighed.

"Who's that little girl, though, and why's she floating over the water?" Lucy asked.

"First master?" Makarov said, surprised.

A moment later he was a lot more surprised as the air around the girl shimmered. Suddenly Tenroujima appeared again, just as it had been when they'd left it, and waves from the sudden appearance bombarded the boat.

"We've got to get to shore, quick!" Makarov said. They pulled the boat in and got off quickly. The girl was still there.

"First master…" Makarov called, but she ran away from them toward the center of the island.

They chased after her till she suddenly disappeared, just as they stumbled into a clearing with four familiar figures, lying on the ground.

"Ugh, what happened?" A pink haired mage groaned as he sat up.

"I dunno." A mage with long, black hair pushed himself off the ground. "One minute we were partying… The next…"

"Dammit, I know I'm not that drunk," the blond-haired man said.

"Aye sir!" exclaimed a familiar blue exceed.

The blue-haired woman said nothing as she stirred. The white exceed was also silent.

Then all six of them realized who was near them.

"We're… back?" They said almost simultaneously.

"Natsu! Laxus! Gajeel! Wendy! Happy! Carla!" The five from the guild were still staring, their mouths hanging open. "You're alive?"

"Ge he." Gajeel grinned as he stood up. The rest also stood, slowly.

Natsu got up as well, giving them his trademark grin. "Guess we're finally home."

"Natsu!" Lucy yelled, running to the dragon slayer and hugging him. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to see that stupid grin again!"

Suddenly she felt an intense, very unpleasant aura. She looked over to see Wendy, who had grown several inches since the dragon slayers all disappeared. And she'd grown in other areas as well. Especially the chest.

"You might want to back off of Natsu," Gajeel said. "Wendy gets rather possessive."

Lucy let go of the dragon slayer, looking between the two. "You mean?..."

Wendy answered the question by quickly closing the distance to Natsu, capturing his lips in a very intense kiss. Natsu's arms wrapped around her waist as her arms encircled his neck.

"Aaaww," Mira said with a grin.

"Hey flame brain!" Gray grinned. "Too bad for you, you'll never catch up to me now. I'm an s-class wizard now."

"So am I," grinned Lucy cheerfully. "And Levy even made S-class. She's out on a mission right now though."

"Juvia is an S-class mage also," Juvia informed them.

"Yeah, and Erza and Mira are both wizard saints now!"

"Really? Congratulations." Natsu grinned. "But now I want to fight you."

"Are you crazy Natsu?" Gray asked. "Didn't you hear what we said? She's a wizard saint now. You don't stand a chance!"

"I just want to see what it takes to be a wizard saint here," Natsu grinned.

As he threw off the jacket he'd been wearing, the guild members now saw that his body was lined with scars. Apparently he hadn't been leading a carefree life since they last saw him. "So how about it Erza?"

She sighed. "Show me you're worthy of a fight and I'll fight you, Natsu. Otherwise, I have other things I'd rather be doing."

"Is that right?" Natsu shrugged. "How do you want me to prove it?"

"Easy. Beat Lucy or Gray, and I'll kick your ass."

"How about I beat Lucy _and_ Gray… together?"

"Ok you cocky jerk," Lucy growled. "You're so going down."

"If you really think you can… But even you should know taking down two S class mages at once would be difficult even for a wizard saint."

"Yeah, I suppose…"

"Ge he," said Gajeel as Laxus and Wendy both smirked. Gray and Lucy got ready to attack.

"Here we come!" Gray said. "Ice Make, Absolute Zero Dragon!"

A huge dragon, almost the size of Acnologia, made entirely of ice formed and charged the dragon slayer. At the same time Lucy summoned Leo, Taurus, Capricorn, and Sagittarius all at once. All four charged the dragon slayer. The ice dragon and the four celestial spirits all hit at once, causing a huge cloud of steam to erupt.

When the steam cleared, the four spirits were all unconscious on the ground around Natsu, and the ice dragon had disappeared completely.

The two gaped in surprise. The other dragon slayers just seemed amused.

"Now it's my turn," Natsu said. "I'll try not to hurt you too badly."

In the blink of an eye he was behind Lucy. "Fire Dragon's Iron fist!" The blonde mage went flying over 100 feet and smacked into a tree, falling to the ground.

"Ice Make Hammer!" Gray slammed an enormous hammer down on the dragon slayer, but he caught it with one hand. Then he turned it to steam in an instant.

"No… No way…" Gray muttered, staring at him in shock.

"You should focus on fighting," Natsu said as he hit him with a Fire Dragon's Talon, taking him out. "Not that it really would've mattered."

Mirajane, Erza, and Makarov all stared, their mouths hanging open.

"I may not even need to fight Erza if that's what an S-class mage is," Natsu said, cracking his knuckles. "I wouldn't even call that a proper warm-up."

"Just how powerful have you become, Natsu?" Erza asked as she stepped forward, now in her flame empress armor.

"You have no idea…"

"Let's get started then," Erza said, and she charged at him.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu hit her with a cone of fire, but she charged through, knowing her armor could handle the attack because of its fire resistance. But then she heard a crack. And another. As the flames receded, she realized that her armor now had steaming cracks running everywhere through it.

"How?..." She gaped.

Natsu suddenly grinned, remembering something that Gildarts had done in the S-class examination. There, in front of everyone, he entered his dragon force, releasing the full aura of his magic power. Erza stared at him for a few moments, and he saw the amazement – and a hint of fear – in her eyes.

"I… I yield," she said, slowly putting away her sword.

Natsu grinned, suppressing his magic power once again.

"Alright," Makarov said. "We've got a new boat specially designed for dragon slayers, so on the way you four are going to tell me exactly where you've been these last 7 years."

"Alright gramps," Laxus grinned, locking his fingers behind his head. "But I hope you're ready for a long story."

Moments later they were on the boat. All the dragon slayers were surprised to discover that they actually didn't get any motion sickness from the rocking. Natsu sat against a railing, with Wendy cuddled up comfortably against him. Not far from them were Laxus and Gajeel, with the two exceeds cuddling on Natsu and Wendy's laps.

"Alright, I guess I'll start." Laxus said quietly.

 **~~~STORY ARC 1: The world ruled by dragons~~~**

 **—x791—**

"Ugh…" Laxus groaned as he woke up, looking around. "I can't believe we're still alive."

Natsu was already awake, sitting nearby and staring off into the distance. "Yeah, but there's something weird. This ain't Tenroujima."

"What do you mean?" Laxus asked. "Where else could we be?"

Natsu shrugged. "Beats me. But it doesn't smell like Tenroujima. And it doesn't feel like Tenroujima. Don't tell me you haven't noticed."

Laxus sighed. "I just woke up dumbass."

Just then Wendy started stirring. "Nnn… We're alive?" The girl asked as she sat up.

"Ge hee." Gajeel grinned from the ground. "Looks like the bastard didn't get us after all."

"Happy, Carla. wake up!" Natsu yelled.

"Natsu," groaned Happy as he stirred. "I was having such a wonderful dream. I had all the fish I could eat."

Suddenly the group was interrupted by a roar and an influx of flapping wings.

"Is that?..." Wendy asked.

Natsu looked out and nodded. "It's a dragon, but not Acnologia. This one's a lot smaller… and it breathes fire." He grinned. "Hey dragon!" He yelled. "Do you know Igneel?!"

As the dragon got closer, it was pretty clear that it had no intention of talking. Even though it was only half Acnologia's size, it had the look in its eye that the large black dragon possessed. The look that didn't want reason. Only destruction. With a roar, it unleashed a powerful cone of fire at the dragon slayers. Even before the fire got close, Wendy, Laxus, and Gajeel all shied back from the heat.

But Natsu jumped in front of them, and the fire all disappeared into his maw. "I see you're an enemy. Too bad for you, fire doesn't work on me!" He leapt at the dragon, meeting it in the air. "Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Crimson Lotus Exploding Flame Blade!"

The dragon seemed to be caught entirely by surprise, as it made no attempt to defend against the move that connected with its head, cracking its armor in a few places. It roared loudly, bathing its opponent in flames again.

"I told you flames don't work on me!" Natsu grinned. "But thanks for the meal! Now I can finish you!"

"Fire Dragon's Talon!" he struck the spot where the armor was cracked, breaking through and tearing out the arteries in its neck. The dragon fell to the ground, blood spurting from its neck, and slowly its flames died out.

"So it is possible to kill them," Laxus said as he looked on. "Although I thought they didn't exist in Earthland anymore…"

"Hey!" A voice called out. "Get over here, quick!"

"Huh?" Natsu went to check it out.

"Are you guys crazy? You need to get in here quick! You should know better than to be out when the dragons are hunting!" They could see a girl with long, purple hair, a loose black shirt, and black pants through some shrubs that sat against the side of a cliff.

"What do you mean? We just killed the dragon!" Natsu grinned.

"While that was very impressive," the girl said quietly, "The others will be here shortly. You need to get inside before you're overwhelmed. Come on!"

They followed her into a tight cave that was a little uncomfortable to squeeze through. After about 50 feet, the enclosed space widened out, and they were able to stand.

Once they were up, she led them off to the side a ways.

"So who are you guys anyway?" She asked, her voice in a whisper. "I've lived in this village my whole life and I've never seen you before."

"I'm Natsu," Natsu said, not too quietly.

"Shh." She hissed. "We don't want them to hear us. They might not be able to eat us in here, but they won't mind roasting our asses. Especially when they find that dead dragon outside."

"Why don't you introduce yourself?" Laxus said quietly. "And tell us what the fuck is going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what the fuck is with this dragon. Dragons died out a long time ago, so how is it that we suddenly saw one living and flying around."

"Umm… My name's Lydia. As for the dragons, I think you guys are delusional. Dragons have plagued us for years. It's why we live in these villages. Now how about you answer my questions. Starting with where you're from."

"We're Fairy Tail wizards!" Natsu whispered loudly. "I'm Natsu, this is Laxus, Gajeel, and Wendy. Happy and Carla are exceeds."

"Fairy Tail?"

"Yeah. It's a big wizard guild." Natsu said. If there were enough light to see, he would've seen the others glaring at him.

"What's a wizard guild?" asked Lydia.

"It's a place where lots of wizards get together and take job requests from people," Natsu replied. "It's lots of fun."

"Sounds like a dragon buffet to me," Lydia whispered. "The dragons seem to especially like eating magic users. Which is why, if we survive today, we need to get as far away from here as possible."

"So wait," Natsu said. "You're saying not only are there still dragons, none of them are friendly toward humans?"

She sighed. "Tell me how you ended up here…"

Natsu recounted the story of Acnologia's attack and their battle against him. Her eyes went wide as they described the huge black dragon and his breath attack that they were sure was large enough to obliterate the whole island.

"But if you got hit with that, how are you here?"

"We don't know," Natsu said quietly. "We just woke up here. Now, can you tell us what's going on?"

She sighed. "In this world, there were lots of mages – and some dragons who really believed they could co-exist with humans, at least that's the legend. But 400 years ago, after the great dragon wars, all that changed."

"What happened?"

"According to legend, the pro-human faction trained a man named Acnologia to become a dragon slayer. The man was so strong that he eventually became a dragon, and made it his goal to destroy every dragon in the world."

"But in the end, the fire king, Igneel, destroyed the black dragon with the help of a few loyal dragons of the peace faction. Unfortunately, the anti-human faction took advantage of their weakened state and killed them. With the leaders and strongest dragons in the faction gone, the anti-human faction won out. And they wanted to make sure no human ever gained the power to kill dragons again, so whenever they find powerful mages they quickly hunt them down and devour them."

"Wow," Laxus said quietly. "That's a lot different from our world. In our world, Acnologia is the only dragon that still exists. All the others died out 400 years ago… Our world is full of people, cities, and mages everywhere."

"Wow. Your world sounds nice," Lydia said dreamily. "We all live in these caves, and we can't even build fires in here. We don't go out very often because of the dragons, and every wizard who starts getting strong is hunted down by the dragons and killed. In fact," her whispered voice changed, a sad heaviness in it. "Many tribes will kick wizards out of their safe havens and leave them to fend for themselves, just so they can be sure they dragons won't attack again."

"That's terrible!" Natsu exclaimed in a loud whisper. "You mean people can just leave other people to die?"

Lydia didn't answer, but he could hear her quiet sniffles in the darkness nearby.

"I'm so sorry," he heard Wendy whisper as his mind was still putting the pieces together. "Have you been living alone this whole time then?"

"Yes," she responded quietly. "Ever since I was 12 and my magic was strong enough that they were afraid we might be detected."

"This world sucks," Natsu whispered, staring off into the darkness. "But we're here now! We're gonna' change everything and make this a world where humans can enjoy living!"

There was silence for a few moments before Lydia whispered, "As much as I think that's impossible… As hard as it is for me to imagine anybody standing up to the dragons… I really want to believe you. My heart already feels a little lighter somehow."

"That's our Natsu-san.." Wendy's whisper came from right next to the dragon slayer, and she laid her head against his chest. Natsu started slightly. When had she gotten so close?

As the dragon slayers fell asleep, Natsu could only think about how this world was going to change.

 **~~~The Next Morning~~~**

"Oi," Gajeel said as he sat up. "How long have we been asleep?"

"About 7 hours," Lydia responded in a quiet voice.

"7 hours?" Laxus's voice broke into their conversation. "That's not nearly enough sleep!"

"Aye sir!" Happy's normally loud voice said in a loud whisper.

"Pff." Lydia snorted. "Natsu and Wendy are already up."

"Where are they?"

"I don't know… They said something about hunting dragons."

"That idiot! I don't mind so much that he did it, but why'd he take Wendy with him?" Growled Laxus. "How long ago was this?"

"About two hours."

Gajeel started up. "We'd better go find them."

"We're going with you," Carla said.

"It's too dangerous!" Laxus said. "You two stay here. I promise we'll bring them back safely."

With that Laxus and Gajeel left the cave. Gajeel sniffed at the air. "They're not far… They're this way." Gajeel started running toward the forest that was a few hundred feet from them.

Suddenly Natsu burst out of the woods, carrying a rather limp Wendy in his arms. Behind him, Laxus and Gajeel saw a dragon that was a good deal bigger than the small one that he'd killed the day before in the air, chasing the fire dragon slayer.

"Take care of Wendy for a minute!" Natsu said, laying her gently on the ground. Then he turned and headed for the dragon, leaping into the air.

"Oi Gajeel," Laxus muttered. "Is it just me, or has his magic power increased a lot since yesterday?"

"I feel it too," Gajeel whispered back as Natsu entered dragon force. "He's definitely a lot stronger than yesterday."

"Fire Dragon's Talon!" Natsu cried out as he hit the dragon squarely in the chest, barely dodging its claws as it struck at him.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" He struck at the same spot. This time a claw grazed his back, sending him flying a hundred feet into the trees.

"You think you, a puny human, can kill me?!" The dragon roared, spewing fire at the dragon slayer. "Be assured, human. After I roast you I'll find all your friends and kill them one by one!"

"You're not gonna get that chance! Fire Dragon's Piercing Spear!" Natsu charged, his fist forward and extended, and then suddenly seemed to blink out of sight. In almost the same instant, he hit the dragon, piercing through the dragon's thick scales.

"Puny human!" Roared the dragon in pain, swatting Natsu, who went tumbling through the air. But this time he stopped less than 20 feet away.

"You just don't understand, do you?" Natsu grinned, his eyes glowing red under the power of his dragon force. "You're outmatched. Fire Dragon's Killing Strike!"

Laxus and Gajeel watched as the dragon slayer plunged both his fire-coated hands deep into the hole in the dragon's chest, emerging with an enormous, still beating heart. He held his trophy up over his head.

"Im… Impossible," grunted the dragon as he fell to the ground. The heart beat stopping in Natsu's hands.

Natsu came down, panting hard. "Man, that took a lot out of me," he said, staggering a little.

"Natsu," Laxus said dangerously. "What happened to Wendy?"

"She'll be fine," Natsu grinned. "She just exhausted her magic power… like me. But she killed the dragon!" He grinned, then toppled to the ground.

"Idiot…" Laxus muttered as he picked him up.

When they were back in the cave, they laid the two a few feet apart. Wendy whimpered softly and scooted closer to Natsu in her sleep. Natsu responded, despite his unconscious state, turning toward the other dragon slayer and wrapping him in his arms.

"Great," Lydia said quietly. "Now we can't move today either."

 **~~~Several hours later~~~**

"What were you thinking Natsu?" Gajeel growled. The dragon slayer was finally awake and sitting up. Wendy was sitting next to him, leaning against him. There was a little light in the cave at the moment due to Natsu's fire.

"Don't yell at Natsu-san." Wendy said, clinging to the dragon slayer. "I wanted to go with him."

"He shouldn't have let you," Laxus said, glaring at the pink-haired dragon slayer.

"Actually I think it's a good thing she came," Natsu said. "It let me confirm something…"

"What's that?" Laxus asked.

Natsu grinned. "First let me ask you a question. Do you feel anything different about Wendy?"

"Different?" Laxus blinked. Now that Natsu mentioned it, the younger dragon slayer did have a more impressive magic aura. As though her magic power had nearly doubled while she slept. Similar to Natsu's…

Natsu must've been able to see what he was thinking. "That's right," he said. "Killing dragons increases our strength. As near as I can figure, your first kill nearly doubles your power. And each one after that provides a smaller boost…"

Laxus noticed Natsu's magic power had grown again as well, fairly significantly. "How many dragons did you kill?" He asked.

"This time? 3, including the one that was chasing me back…" Natsu grinned.

"I guess that means we've got some catching up to do," Gajeel said, cracking his knuckles.

"I hate to break up your chat," Lydia said. "But if you've killed 3 dragons… No, 5 now, if the girl killed one too, then we'd better be moving. The dragons will be sure to know we're here now, and they'll be back in larger numbers."

"She's right," Gajeel said. "We'd better head out."

"Aye sir!" Happy said cheerfully.

It was a long, silent trek. They stayed close to the forest, burying themselves under leaves and branches whenever a dragon was approaching. It was several hours before they finally found another cave that went deep enough for Lydia to feel comfortable with where they were. Similar to the other one, this cave had a very small entrance that they had to crawl to get through, and by the time they reached a larger space it was too dark to see anything.

"Well, I'm exhausted," Gajeel said, slumping against the rock.

"Me too," Laxus said as he laid down. "Who ever though stone could be so comfortable?"

"I wish I had a change of clothes," Wendy whispered as she snuggled in to Natsu.

"Get used to it," muttered Lydia. "Around here we're lucky to have clothes at all."

There were a few minutes of silence. Then, as his eyes were about to close, Laxus heard. "Hey Gajeel, Laxus. Tomorrow we need to get you guys your first kills."

"Ge he," Gajeel agreed.

"I'm fired up," Laxus grinned, and then the two fell asleep.

"Natsu!" They were awakened by an ecstatic moan from Wendy. Instantly Laxus activated his lightning, filling the cavern with light. "What the fuck are you doing Natsu? She's still a child!"

"Wendy, it's shameful to be doing those things." Carla said. Then they all looked at the two dragon slayers.

They were both fully clothed, but wrapped in an embrace. A trickle of blood ran down Natsu's neck, and as Wendy's long hair fell off her neck they could see a trickle of blood on hers also.

"I wasn't doing 'those things,' Carla," Wendy said. "Natsu and I both know I'm too young for that. But I had to mark my mate before some other girl took him."

"Your mate?" Laxus blinked a few times. Had he heard that correctly? Did the little girl even know what that meant?

Wendy blushed a little. "Shouldn't we get rid of the light?" she asked.

"Oh right," Laxus extinguished his lightning. "But you still need to explain yourself."

Wendy sighed. "Well, I guess the short of it is that killing my first dragon did a little more than increase my magic power. It also awakened some… well, instincts that I didn't even know I had."

"You mean _you_ initiated this Wendy?" Carla sounded shocked.

"Of course I did," the girl defended herself. "Natsu's a very desirable mate. He's of age, and it'll be a few years before I am. If I didn't claim him quickly, someone else might have…"

"Ge he," Gajeel chuckled.

"What do you find funny about this?" Carla snapped at the iron dragon slayer.

"Well," Gajeel said with a smirk evident in his voice. "Of all the possible couples in the guild, I never expected Wendy and Natsu… and I certainly didn't expect Wendy to actually initiate anything."

"With that blockhead any girl would've had to initiate," Carla snapped irritably.

"You know what this means, Gajeel," Laxus said.

"What?"

"It means out of the four of us from Fairy Tail, all that's left are men."

"So?"

"So it could take us years to figure out how to get back!"

"Oh…" Gajeel was starting to see where this was going. "Shit."

"Yeah," Laxus said.

Suddenly Happy's voice interrupted them. "You liiike each other!"

"Well duh!" The others snapped.

"I mean Gajeel and Laxus."

"EEWW!"

"Not so loud," hissed Lydia.

"Meh, it's time for us to head out now anyway," Natsu said. "We've got to make these dragon slayers into authentic dragon _slayers_."

"Sounds good to me," Gajeel said. And Laxus fully agreed.

"Let's go dragon hunting."


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. It all belongs to Mashima.

Alright. I've had a couple people already say that the romance moved a bit fast. I didn't think it did, but then, I wrote the entire story so far from Natsu and Laxus's perspectives, so I guess you can't see what's going on in Wendy's head. So I'm going to back up a little in the timeline and tell the story from Wendy's perspective. Perhaps that'll help people understand where I'm coming from with the quick movement.

Anyway, here's Chapter 2. Hope you like it.**

* * *

Talking to Lydia awakened an old feeling of sadness and helplessness in Wendy. A feeling she'd often had in Caitshelter, but which had slowly been disappearing during her time in Fairy Tail. She instinctively began to get closer to the one who helped her overcome her self doubt initially. The only one who could shout out words of encouragement and have her attacking the black dragon Acnologia with him. The only one who could fill her with confidence just by being there.

Her mind went back to the first time he came for her. All they way back when she first met him. It was just a joint guild mission, but he already considered her part of his family. She'd begun to feel it then. But she was still a child, and he was a teen. A teen with beautiful, female friends. What could he possibly ever see in her?

This was the boy she'd fallen in love with. And here he was, his confident words already bringing hope to someone who he'd just met. The infectious confidence making the impossible suddenly seem easy to accomplish. She laid her head on the dragon slayer's shoulder. _He'll never see me as any more than a little sister…_ "That's our Natsu," she said with a slightly sad smile. But then she cuddled up to Natsu, her sadness momentarily forgotten as she basked in the heat of his body. Maybe at the guild Lucy and Lisanna had a pull on him. But right now he was hers, and hers alone. She drifted off to sleep, cuddled against her crush.

 **~~~The next morning~~~**

Wendy shivered slightly, her eyes opening as her warmth left her. "Natsu…" She suddenly sat upright, realizing he wasn't beside her. Then she heard movement. "Natsu?"

"I'm going hunting," was all the dragon slayer said.

"Take me with you," Wendy whispered. Maybe if she went with him she could get stronger. Maybe she could become someone worthy of him.

"I don't know Wendy, are you sure? It'll be really dangerous…"

"I know Natsu-san!" she said, an unusually fierce determination in her voice. "But I need to get stronger. I need to go out on this hunt. Please Natsu-san!"

There was a pause, then Natsu answered with a cheerful whisper. "Ok Wendy, if you want to do it I know you can. Let's go kick some dragon ass!"

Her heart fluttered as they headed out of the cave. Normally she would've been worried about going out to hunt dragons. It would've scared her senseless. But not if she was with Natsu.

Soon they found a group of three dragons, all of them as small as the one Natsu had taken down the day before. She watched in admiration as the dragon slayer took down two of them. But the third one he only hit once, cracking the armor, and backed off.

"This one's for you, Wendy," he said to her.

"For me?..." she flushed a little. "Do you think I'm strong enough?"

"Of course you're strong enough Wendy," he grinned, dodging the dragon's wind breath attack. "And I promise, if you kill this dragon it'll make you stronger."

"Umm… Ok Natsu-san." She blushed a little. No one else could make her feel so confident in her abilities. Perhaps that was what she liked most about the dragon slayer… if only he felt the same way.

"Sky Dragon's Roar!" She hit the cracked armor with her breath attack. The crack seemed to grow a little, but not anything more.

The creature turned it's attention to her, hitting her with a breath attack. She sucked up the wind, feeling the power rush through her.

"Now Wendy! Hit it with everything you've got!"

"Everything I've got?" But that would mean… she'd expend all her magic energy. She wouldn't even be able to stay conscious after that effort. But… She could do it. She could do it because she knew Natsu-san would catch her. That he would be there for her, protect her. Even if it was fighting a dragon, she wouldn't die.

"Sky Dragon's Crushing Fang!" She put all her power into the strike, knowing it was all or nothing. She watched as the attack shattered the armor, and the dragon fell roaring to the ground, blood spurting from it's open wound. Some of it got on her hands and clothes. She watched it's thrashing stop before she started to fall, but before she reached the ground she felt strong, warm arms under her.

There was a loud roar, and the last thing she saw before losing consciousness was a new fire dragon approaching, this one larger than the other ones they'd fought.

 **~~~After the move to the next cave~~~**

 _"_ _Come on Natsu, let's go hang out for a while, just you and me." Wendy found herself in the guild, talking to her favorite pink-haired dragon slayer._

 _"_ _Sorry Wendy, I can't. I'm going to Lucy's house to hang out."_

 _"_ _You're always at Lucy's house," Wendy complained. "Why can't you hang out with me?"_

 _"_ _Because you're just a little girl, Wendy. Lucy's a woman. And she's gorgeous. In fact, I think I'm gonna' ask her out today."_

 _Wendy wanted to say something. Wanted to stop the dragon slayer as he walked out the door. But she couldn't. She didn't have the courage to face the possibility of rejection. She let her head fall onto the table, crying the silent tears that had become familiar in her relationship with Natsu. The silent tears that nobody else could even see._

Suddenly she jolted awake, relieved to discover that it had all been a dream. She'd been sleeping. Sleeping in the arms of Natsu. Her Natsu.

Her Natsu? Yes. Why shouldn't he be? She could feel the power coursing through her after her recent kill. Power, and strong instincts. She needed to move now. To make him hers forever before someone else could.

But wait. She had time. Lucy and Lisanna didn't have a chance at him while they were back with the guild. She had time.

No. She didn't have time. For all she knew they could find themselves back in Earthland tomorrow. Back with the blonde and the silver-haired beauties. Not to mention Mirajane and Erza. She was pretty sure that, though they hid it well, both beautiful mages had an eye on the pink-haired dragon slayer.

 _What would Natsu-san do?_ Wendy asked herself. But she already knew the answer. He would let his instincts take over. He would do what his heart felt was right without question.

Following her instincts, she nuzzled against the pink haired dragon slayer. Then slowly opened her mouth and sunk her teeth into his neck.

She gasped in pleasure at the feeling as Natsu jolted awake. It was like his hot fire was invading her soul, becoming part of her in a way much more intimate and special than the physical mating that her body was still too young for. And she could feel part of herself depart into him. He looked at her, startled, before his eyes filled with the blind instinct she'd acted on. He moved her hair to the side, and as his teeth sunk into her neck she couldn't help crying out in pleasure. "Natsu!"

Immediately lightning filled the cavern, revealing their compromising position. Wendy didn't care though. Her heart was in ecstasy. _He's mine. Lucy and Lisanna can't have him anymore. I don't have to worry about someone else taking him before I'm old enough. Natsu is mine and mine alone._

Through the conversation that followed, Wendy found herself being a little more assertive than she was used to. What was it that happened? Was it just her elation at finally being with her beloved? Or was the part of him that remained in her already affecting her personality a little? She shrugged, not really caring at the moment. She kind of liked this new part of Wendy. The part that could confidently assert what she wanted – just a little of course. But especially if what she wanted was Natsu.

 _He's mine._ Her mind still didn't fully believe it, but her heart was certain. _Natsu Dragneel is mine. Forever and always._

And then they were off hunting dragons.

 **~~~Natsu~~~**

 _I guess it's true that sometimes you don't really know what you want until you get it._ The dragon slayer's mind was still reeling from his experience earlier. He couldn't deny that he'd noticed Wendy. She had a certain charm about her that nobody else in the guild could rival. But because of her age he'd never really considered her as a possible girlfriend. But when he'd unexpectedly learned her feelings, he realized that he fully, and shamelessly, reciprocated them.

Of course he wouldn't do anything to act on those feelings yet. Wendy was still little more than a child physically. But what mattered was that he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that his heart was telling him that this was right. Wendy Marvell was his mate.

Just then they spied a smaller dragon, which spied them almost at the same moment. It attacked head on, speeding in toward the group.

"I got this one," Laxus declared. "Roar of the Lightning Dragon!"

The dragon bellowed in pain, letting loose an iron breath.

"Ge he," Said Gajeel, gobbling it up.

"Lightning Dragon's Breakdown Fist!" Laxus roared, and a huge fist made of lightning formed in front of him, propelling itself at the dragon in front of him. The dragon screamed again as the fist hit him, but shook off the stun effect, charging at the lightning dragon slayer.

"Lightning Dragon's Iron Fist!" Laxus hit the dragon hard, causing a small crack in its armor, but got knocked to the ground by a leg he couldn't dodge.

He was back on his feet in an instant. "Lightning Dragon's Heavenward Halberd!" He cried out, raising both hands in the air. A spear of lightning formed in his hands, and he hurled it with precise aim at the crack in the shell as the dragon sped toward him. He was still unable to get out of the way in time, and took another hit. He then got up, breathing heavily.

"Heh," he grinned, seeing the armor fully penetrated. "No stupid dragon is gonna' take me down." Lightning Dragon's Breakdown Fist!"

Again the huge fist formed in front of him, hitting the dragon's broken shell. And expanding the crack even wider. This time the dragon was paralyzed, crashing forward into the ground with its wounds exposed.

Laxus came up to it with his hands raised over his head, an immense amount of lightning gathered in them. "Lightning Dragon's Jaw!" He brought the fists down hard on the wound, causing an immense crater and penetrating deep into the dragon's body. As blood sprayed from the dragon's open wound, the life slowly fled from its eyes.

"Well, I'm done…" Laxus groaned, slumping down to the ground.

"Don't worry," Natsu grinned at Gajeel. "Another one's coming, so you'll have some fun in a minute."

Gajeel looked up. The approaching dragon was smaller than the one Laxus had just taken down. In fact, it was almost the same size as the one Natsu had killed when they'd first arrived in this strange world. "Ge he," he grinned.

Natsu sniffed the air. "Watch out Gajeel," he warned. "This one's a poison type."

Gajeel grinned. "Don't worry about me Salamander. Just make sure you take Laxus somewhere safe."

Natsu and Wendy moved Laxus from the fighting area, and Gajeel faced the oncoming dragon. He easily leapt out of the way of the dragon's leading breath attack.

"Iron Dragon's Roar!" A cone of iron breath shot out at the dragon, hitting it hard in the neck and chest area. The dragon cried out loudly and painfully, shooting another breath attack at the iron dragon slayer. Gajeel jumped back just in time to avoid it.

"Iron Dragon's Sword"!" A great sword formed in his hand, and he rushed in as fast as he could, getting a strike in at the neck scales on the bottom. He rolled quickly to avoid a sweeping leg, remembering that even the claws of these dragons could be deadly if they hit.

There was no visible damage, but he knew the attacks were weakening the dragon. With a growl, he pulled out one of his most powerful spells. "Karma Demon: Iron God Sword!" A giant sword appeared and he swung it, just as the dragon crashed into him. The scales on the upper neck and chest cracked wide open, several rows of scales breaking away. However, the sheer force of the dragon's attack knocked the dragon slayer back into a tree 50 feet away.

Groaning, Gajeel regained his feet. One of the claws had hit him. But he still had time to kill the creature. He had one good strike left. Wendy would heal the poison.

"Karma Demon: Iron Sprial!" He transformed his feet into a drill and drove into the cracked and broken hide. As he drilled through the dragon's flesh, blood splattered on and around him till he felt the creature's vital organs.

As soon as he saw the dragon's eyes close in death, Gajeel fell to the ground, the poison starting to work. Instantly Wendy ran to him, using her healing magic to get rid of the poison. Then she and Natsu quickly carried the other two back to the cave.

As soon as Laxus and Gajeel were resting, Natsu and Wendy went back out to hunt.

They'd barely been running for two minutes when Natsu smelled a different smell. It was a human, an unusual scent to be encountering in this land. He quickly ran toward the scent, and looking up he saw a large brown-colored dragon chasing something through the trees. His sharp ears caught the sound of the human running through the forest, panting for breath.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu entered dragon force, hitting the dragon with a full breath attack. The creature roared again, turning back toward the new threat. Wendy took off after the human, to make sure the person was ok.

Behind her the battle raged, but she didn't pay any mind to it. This was her Natsu, after all. He had it under control.

The girl was a well-endowed girl of about 19 years, with hair as red as the sunset that came down just below her shoulders. Wendy caught up to her and had to tackle her to get her to stop. The girl turned, her eyes full of fear and a sword in her hand.

"It's ok! I don't want to hurt you!" Wendy cried.

"Are you crazy?!" Screamed the girl. "There's a dragon right behind us!"

"You mean that dragon?" Wendy grinned with pride as she watched Natsu deliver a powerful punch to the creature's back. Apparently he hit it hard enough to force it down a bit.

"Is that… a human?" The girl asked, wide-eyed.

Wendy just nodded her confirmation, not wanting to brag about her mate just yet. "What's your name?"

"Erza. Erza Fairykin." The girl was intent on the fight, a faint blush on her cheeks. Wendy watched as her Natsu delivered the final blow, a talon attack that broke through the dragon's spine into its heart. When Natsu came out, he was covered with the creature's blood from head to toe.

Wendy sighed at the sight, even as Natus burned the blood off his body. He came over and smiled at the girl. "Hello there. I'm Natsu. What's your name?"

"Erza," the girl replied, a faint blush on her cheeks. "Thanks for saving me, Natsu-san."

Wendy quickly went and gave her dragon slayer a quick, chaste peck on the lips. "You were amazing as always, Natsu."

Erza looked at them, then at Natsu, a slight glare in her eyes. "Really? She's a child."

Before Natsu could retort, Wendy cut in. "If you must know, it was this _child_ " she put a heavy emphasis on the word "that chose him. And the choice is irrevocable," she added with a glowing smile at the memory.

"You mean you initiated?..." Erza gaped at the young dragon slayer.

"Umm, yeah, I did actually." Wendy could hardly believe it herself.

Suddenly a dragon's roar interrupted them. Wendy looked up to see a smaller dragon approaching.

"Why don't you take this one, Wendy?" Natsu said, giving her a nod of encouragement.

Wendy nodded, glad of the chance to show this cocky girl that she was more than just a child. She took off toward the approaching dragon, entering her dragon force. "Sky Dragon's Roar!" She hit it hard with her breath. The dragon recoiled a little, roaring again, and dove toward the sky maiden.

Wendy hadn't known what pent up aggression felt like before, but fuck did it feel good to release it. With each talon attack she struck out at the memories of the other girls who were previously vying for Natsu's heart. With each wing attack she blew away the years of self-doubt and fear that had plagued her. And as she plunged her last attack into the dragon's heart, she felt its blood spray over her with a smile. She'd never understood why Natsu liked fighting so much. But now she did. As long as you directed anger in the right direction, it wasn't a bad thing.

"Want to come with us to hunt some more?" She asked Erza with a smile.

"Aren't you going to wash?" Erza asked.

"Why bother? I'm just going to get more dragon blood on me before the day is over. I'll wash when the day's done."

Suddenly Natsu's stomach growled. "Oy, I'm kinda' hungry."

Wendy realized her own stomach was begging her for food. "Me too," she said.

"Well, I gathered plenty of food," Erza said. "I guess I could share some with you."

A few minutes later they were eating an assortment of nuts and berries that left them wanted more. "Man, why doesn't anyone eat meat around here?"

"Probably because nobody wants to start a fire to cook meat, and taking the time to hunt it down can be deadly."

Natsu sighed. "We're going to have to change that. Life's just not complete without meat."

Wendy laughed, and Erza giggled too.

"Well, thanks for the food." Natsu grinned. "Let's hunt some more dragons."

"I'll come with you," Erza said.

"Cool!" Natsu grinned. "Just, when it comes time to fight, stay out of the way."

"Don't worry," Erza shuddered. "I have no desire to be too close to a dragon's battle."

Natsu just grinned.

They killed 7 more dragons that day. Natsu killed 5 of them and Wendy killed two. Then, as he'd promised, Natsu found them a nice, big forest deer. And he even cooked it up for them. The three had all the meat and berries they could eat, then packed up what they could salvage of the meat, and of course the berries, and headed back to the main camp.

Gajeel and Laxus were awake by the time they got, and the three of them headed into the cave.

"Hey Salamander, that better not be dragon meat."

"Relax Gajeel. It's just a deer I decided to kill and cook up for us."

"Oh, thanks. I'm really tired of berries and grass all day."

"It's not grass, it's lettuce." Lydia complained.

"Same thing," Gajeel growled. "So who's the new girl Natsu?"

"This is Erza Fairykin." Natsu said. "There was a dragon chasing her, so we killed it."

"And several others," Wendy added.

"Cool," Gajeel said. "You guys must really be getting stronger."

Wendy snuggled up against Natsu in the darkness. "Tomorrow we're all going dragon hunting."

"And after that we're not ever sleeping in a cave like this again," Natsu growled. "We've got enough of us to cover the night in shifts in case of a dragon attack."

"We should try to hide out as long as possible," Laxus said. "At least until we get a lot stronger. I know we've killed lots of dragons, but we still haven't seen one that even comes close to measuring up to Acnologia."

"True," Natsu said. "But if two of us stay awake at a time, I'm pretty sure that we can take whatever comes our way. And if we think it'll be too much of a problem, we wake the other two."

Wendy smiled, knowing there was no point in arguing with the pink-haired dragon slayer. Once he made up his mind, he was going to do it, and no reason in the world would stop him.

Of course, that was one of his most endearing qualities. And one of his most aggravating qualities.

"You know," Laxus said as he lay back. "We've only been here a few days, but it feels like a lot longer."

Wendy agreed. Maybe because everything was happening so fast. Their growth in magic power, her finally getting Natsu in a relationship with her. Learning that they could indeed kill dragons, maybe even dragons as powerful as Acnologia with enough time. Perhaps that was the most important part of their journey thus far.

Well, not really. The most important part was, and always would be, making the move to claim her mate. She smiled and laid her head on his chest, falling asleep slowly in the arms of the one she loved.


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. They all belong to Mashima.

Ddraig - Yes, when Wendy killed her first dragon it awakened her dragon instincts. However, the instincts caused her to see the truth of her feelings as they would grow in the future rather than framing them in a form that was more acceptable to Natsu's other potential love interests, such as sibling love or childhood crush. To a dragon, a mate is a life partner, and Wendy's dragon wanted to lay claim to the alpha male as her life partner before anyone else could.

Anyway, here's chapter 3. Next update should be on Fiery Jade. R&R as always.**

* * *

Natsu watched as Wendy downed her fourth dragon, but knew that she was getting low on magic power. Gajeel and Laxus, both having finished off two dragons, were also starting to get a little weak.

But Natsu wasn't anywhere close to done yet. They'd stumbled into a whole nest of dragons, and there were still at least 8 more left to kill. With an exultant roar, he broke through another dragon's chest armor, ripping out its heart with his now scaled hands. Blood spurted from the wounds, adding to the blood already covering his body. But Natus didn't care. He broke the still-beating heart apart with his bare hands, then moved on to the next dragon.

He was starting to get a little disappointed with these weak dragons. The first one he'd ever killed had been a challenge. In fact, he wasn't entirely sure he would've escaped injury free if the creature had actually expected him to be able to eat its fire and fight back. But he'd used the element of surprise to his advantage and gotten his first authentic dragon slaying experience. But now, only a few days later, these dragons had turned into weaklings. He needed something stronger if he was ever going to be able to beat Acnologia.

He decided to take his frustration out on the dragon he was currently fighting. "Damn weakling," he yelled, slicing it's hide open. Blood poured from the dragon's many wounds as the dragon slayer continued his merciless attack. He felt his claws rip through the creature's flesh, tasting some of the metallic blood that sprayed out on his face and neck. He was angry now, though he didn't fully understand why. Why were they all such weaklings?

Before he realized it, all the dragons in the next were dead, their bodies torn to bloody pieces form his brutal onslaught. Because the nest area sloped down, he was now standing in a pool of blood that came almost up to his knees, and more was pouring from dragon corpses all around him. Laxus, Gajeel, and Wendy were staring at him.

"Weak ass dragons," he muttered as he burned the blood off him, slowly emerging from the bloody sea. Then, a little louder. "Well, I guess that does it for today. Let's head back to our home area."

 **~~~Back near the cave~~~**

"So tell me again what you saw?" Erza said, her eyes wide. The piece of meat was frozen a few inches from her mouth.

"Well, it kinda' looked like a huge bird's nest, except there was no straw or sticks or anything." Natsu said with a shrug. "Kind of a big bowl of rock, and there were like 8 dragons inside. But we took care of all of them."

Erza looked a little pale, and the hand that wasn't occupied by her food was now clenched on her skirt.

"Is something wrong, Erza?" Wendy asked, looking at the red-haired girl. She couldn't imagine what the girl might be afraid of after their easy destruction of the dragons. Plus, even though she knew this was a different world, this was Erza-nee. Erza didn't have any fears to speak of.

"If the legends are true," Erza said. "Then what you just killed were all the young of the brood."

"The young?" Natsu asked. Wendy couldn't help noticing he looked more than just a little interested, and for some reason that scared her. She grabbed his arm and snuggled against it.

"Yes. Those were likely all the young dragons from a single mother and father." Erza said.

"But wait," Natsu said. "That doesn't seem to make sense… I mean, sure, we fought a lot of fire dragons, but there were also sky dragons, an iron dragon, and even a poison dragon."

"Well," Erza said. "According to the books that survived the dragon wars, Dragon types are a little bit like our hair color or eye color."

"Meaning what?" Natsu asked.

"Well," said Erza. "Eye color and hair color have different types of traits. Dominant and recessive. Some eye colors are dominant, basically meaning that any family with those eye colors is more likely to have children with those eye colors. Others are recessive, basically meaning that it's less likely for families in which only one of the parents have that eye color will have children with that eye color. I could go more in depth, but this will help you understand."

"Ok, I guess," Natsu said. "So what's that got to do with dragons and their elements?"

"Well," Erza replied, "Dragons also have recessive and dominant genes that control their types. Fire types are dominant, so chances are even if one mate carries only 1 of the fire type gene they will have lots of fire type children. There's a hierarchy, but that would take too long to explain. But basically, that's why you're seeing a lot of fire dragon young and only a few of the other types."

"Ok I guess," Natsu said. "Basically what I get out of that is that I get to fight some stronger dragons."

"Much stronger," Erza said. "According to the legends, the young dragons leave the nesting area once they become the equivalent of our young teens. So about Wendy's age."

Wendy shivered as she saw Natsu's expression at that news. It was as if he had an intense desire – a hunger even – to go out and find these dragons now. She remembered the scene, and the words that her sensitive dragon ears had picked up… _"Weak ass dragons."_

The rest of the evening was relatively quiet. Gajeel and Laxus went to sleep early, still tired from the day's excursions. Wendy was able to put the day's events behind her as she curled up against her mate.

 _Wendy startled awake when she heard the roar. She looked around confused. She was all alone, in the midst of the island of Tenroujima. How did she get here? Where was Natsu?_

 _"_ _Natsu," she cried out, but there was no response, except another roar. She looked up in fear, seeing the huge black dragon Acnologia approaching._

 _"_ _Natsu!" She was scared now. She'd killed some young dragons, but this wasn't anything like them. This was the most powerful dragon in all Fiore. "Natsu!"_

 _Suddenly Acnologia's image shimmered and changed. He wasn't a black dragon anymore. In place of the enormous black dragon king was a fire dragon of the same proportions, with eyes that glowed a demonic orange color._

 _"_ _What… What's going on?" She cried out, her old fear and helplessness returning to her. "Help me Natsu!"_

 _As the dragon opened its mouth one more time, the image flickered again for a moment. The huge fire dragon disappeared, turning into a battle-scarred man with long, pink hair, black pants, a vest, and a scarf she would recognize anywhere. Her eyes went wide before the scene flickered again and the flames consumed her._

 _"_ _NATSU!"_

Wendy jolted awake, trembling and sobbing uncontrollably. She clutched her small hands tightly on Natsu's chest, her tears flowing on his finely chiseled pecs and causing her hair to mat around her.

"Wendy?" Natsu asked softly, and she felt his warm, comforting fingers in her hair. "What's wrong?"

"It's… It's nothing." Wendy managed between sobs. "It was just a dream…"

"Must've been quite a dream," Natsu said quietly. "Care to share?"

Wendy shook her head. "I… I forget what it was already," she lied.

Natsu tensed a little, and she knew that he didn't believe her. But to her immense relief he didn't pursue the question any further. Instead he just held her, stroking her hair gently. "You don't have anything to fear, Wendy. I'm here for you."

Slowly she relaxed into his embrace, her tears coming to a stop. After all, it was nothing more than a bad dream, right? Just the stress of battle messing with her mind.

It took some time, but she finally was able to get back to sleep. This time there were no terrible nightmares of Acnologia, Natsu, or anything else to plague her dreams.

The next couple days went without incident. Natsu had wanted to go hunting for the dragons, but it was argued, with good reason, that it wasn't a good idea for the most powerful dragon slayers to leave the girls alone, or even in the care of Gajeel and Laxus, just in case the adult dragons attacked while they were out.

But then, almost a week after the slaughter at the nest, a loud, terrible roar echoed through the air. It was almost like the black dragon that had attacked them on Tenroujima. It was soon joined by another voice, this one high and piercing, almost like a bird but much, much louder and more painful to hear.

The two girls cowered in fear. Even Laxus and Gajeel looked a little worried. But as Wendy watched, Natsu's expression changed from almost bored to eager, almost lustful. She couldn't help shuddering a bit at the peculiar scent he was giving off. It wasn't the sent of a dragon in heat. In fact, it wasn't sexual at all, but it wasn't something she was used to smelling on her dragon slayer, and she didn't like it.

"Wendy, let's go." He said, and took off toward the sounds. She didn't have a choice other than to follow him. They were barely a quarter mile from the camp when they saw the dragons approaching. There was a huge fire dragon that looked almost as big as Acnologia, and a large sky dragon that reminded her a little of Grandeeney. But she could sense nothing but hate and anger coming from these dragons.

"Let's let 'em know we're here," Natsu said with a grin. "Fire Dragon's Roar!"

The attack hit the fire dragon, not doing any damage, but immediately the dragons turned their attention to the duo. "Wendy, get back!" Natsu yelled as the adult fire dragon let loose it's breath. Even with her Vernier enchantment, Wendy barely managed to get out of the area of impact in time. Natsu consumed all the flames, and a wide grin spread across his face.

"That's what I'm talking about !" He yelled, entering dragon force. "Let's go you oversized lizard!"

He took off toward the large fire dragon, hitting it with a fire dragon's talon attack. The dragon brushed the attack off and swiped at him with a large foot, which Natsu dodged. But then the sky dragon hit him with a full head on attack, driving him down to the ground.

Natsu coughed as he got up. "Damn that hurt. Wendy! Keep the sky dragon busy for a few minutes. You don't have to kill it. Just don't let it interfere!"

Wendy nodded with a gulp, entering dragon force. She saw the sky dragon ignoring her and going after Natsu again, so she quickly used her sky dragon's wing attack to deliver a powerful blow to its back.

She grinned as it turned toward her. It had worked! The dragon was now acknowledging her as an opponent! She sucked up its breath attack that it hit her with next, feeling the power rush through her as her magic revived to its fullest current potential.

But the grin quickly left when the sky dragon attacked. She was barely able to avoid the swift brute force attack that was aimed at her. _That's right, Sky dragon's excel in speed and agility_. She grunted, coming in for a second attack, using her talon this time. The sky dragon blocked with her forelimb, and sent Wendy flying back with a swat.

Moving as quickly as she could, Wendy flew back in, dodging the sky dragon's attempt to intercept her attack. Agility was a sky-dragon's strong suit, after all. And as the smaller, more agile sky dragon she would have the advantage on this playing field. To the right, she saw Natsu go flying high into the sky, only to dive toward the fire dragon again with increased fury.

She dodged another claw, and landed a solid punch to the sky dragon's neck. Then she got out of the way just in time as the dragon tried to grab her. She was just starting back in when she got hit from behind by what felt like a tree limb, sending her sailing to the ground below.

"Oof!" She impacted the trees hard, and got back up. The dragon hit her with its tail. She had to remember to watch out for that trick in the future. With a cry she was back in the fray. Natsu was counting on her. However long she had to keep this battle going, she would last. Nothing would take that from her.

She decided to learn one of the new spells that had come with her recent training. "Sky Dragon's Spear of the Goddess!" The wind gathered to her hand, forming an enormous javelin nearly twice as long as she was, and she hurled it with all her might at the dragon. She watched it impact low on the creature's neck. The dragon just shrugged it off and charged her again.

Wendy moved as quickly as she could, soaring up above the dragon to get out of the way. Even so, the tail flick as it passed under her grazed her, sending her spinning further up into the sky. As she came to a stop, she had trouble orienting herself after all the spinning for a moment. When she was, she saw the sky dragon almost upon her again.

"Sky Dragon's Wing Attack!" She cried out, just reacting to the situation. The wing attack hit the dragon, and also propelled her away from it, lessening the force of its blow. Still, she was flung far out into the sky away from the dragon again, and she felt a sharp pain in her left ribs.

This time she didn't wait for the disorientation to fade. She had to move. Even if she ended up moving toward the dragon, it was better than just waiting to be hit again. Her quick evasion move worked, as the dragon passed over her head with its next attack, giving her time to ready one more powerful attack.

"Sky Dragon's Deadly Typhoon!" She cried out, and instantly the winds began to rip at the sky dragon she was fighting. Slowly the typhoon winds gathered together, seeming to converge on the point in the dragon's neck that she'd been aiming for. It focused there, spinning in a tight circle like an enormous drill, until the armor cracked just a little.

The dragon roared and charged the young dragon slayer, and this time Wendy's dodge wasn't fast enough. She avoided the dragon's body, but the sweeping leg caught her, hurling her toward the ground. She couldn't recover in time. She'd used too much magic power.

Suddenly her body was enveloped in strong arms, and she felt a warm body behind her as she fell. The fall slowed drastically before they hit, and Natsu's warm body cushioned the impact.

"Finish the dragon, Wendy," Natsu said quietly. "You're almost there."

"I'm sorry Natsu," she replied quietly. "I don't have enough magic power left… I injured it though, at the bottom of the neck.

She felt a wetness seeping through her dress and looked down at the arms that held her. They were dripping with red liquid, and as Natsu set her gently down she saw that same blood dripping from his clothes and hair. He looked concerned at first, but as he looked up at the dragon she saw that foreign, over-eager expression on his face. Sure, Natsu always put everything into what he was doing. But this went beyond that. It was almost as though he was letting this become his life. As though it was what he lived for.

She wanted to watch the whole fight, but her exhaustion quickly overtook her. As her eyes closed, she saw a huge forelimb connect with her dragon slayer, but she also saw that the attack hadn't come without a price. The foot of the forelimb was severed and falling, blood spraying from the open wound and the bone clearly through the dripping blood. But even the creature's painful howling couldn't keep sleep from claiming her.

 **~~~Later~~~**

When Wendy awoke a few hours later, she was laying comfortable against her dragon slayer with her head on his lap, not far from Gajeel and Laxus. She snuggled softly against him as she listened to the conversation around him.

"So according to these legends of yours, how long do we have till a new brood moves in?" Gajeel was asking.

"It's hard to say," Erza said. "Once the dragons realize this brood was destroyed, a new, more powerful brood will move in. As to when? It could be a month. Could be 3 months. Could be a year for all I know."

"Well that sucks," Natsu said. "It's kind of hard to plan for training and such when we don't know when they'll be back."

"Should we just go wipe out another nest?" Gajeel asked.

"I don't think so," Erza said. "One nest getting wiped out might concern the dragons a little, but it won't cause any major retaliation. However, if they were to suddenly have nests start disappearing all over…"

"We'd be dealing with their full force right away. Something we're definitely not ready for yet," Wendy finished the thought for her.

"Oh good, you're awake." Natsu said, grinning at her. "You were really impressive out there, Wendy."

"Not as impressive as you," she muttered with a blush.

"More impressive I'd say," Natsu gave her his trademark grin. "How many 12 year olds do you know who can say they took on an adult dragon and lived to tell of it?"

Wendy blushed slightly. "I'm almost 13, you know," she said.

"Really? When's your birthday?"

"Tomorrow," Wendy muttered, wondering why she'd brought that up. She'd always been fine with nobody knowing when her birthday was so they wouldn't feel obligated to celebrate.

"Awesome! We'll have to celebrate!" Natsu said with a grin.

"You-you don't need to do that." Wendy continued to blush furiously.

"Now there's the old Wendy that we all know and love," Carla said.

"Carla…" Wendy blushed again.

"They Liike each other," Happy grinned.

"Happy, we've known that for days," Gajeel growled.

"I meant Laxus and Erza."

A moment later the exceed was being pounded against the ground, Erza swinging him by his tail. "Say that again cat, I dare you."

"Natsu help! This Erza's even scarier than ours!" Happy wailed.

"Try not to kill him," Natsu offered. "I think I'm going to get some sleep now."

And soon Wendy was able to drift off again as well, safe in the arms of her mate.


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. Just my original thoughts and plot lines, whatever those may be. Everything else belongs to Mashima.

Woot. Sorry it's been taking a while to update, but unfortunately real life has a way of catching up with you. Eventually. So real life is catching up... And story updates are going slower...

Anyway, here's chapter 4. Enjoy.**

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3 long years had gone by, and Natsu was succeeding in his mission. Together the dragon slayers had wiped out 14 nests of dragons, systematically destroying the young and ambushing the adults when they came back. But now the nests were getting harder to find.

And Wendy couldn't help being a little happy about that. There was something about Natsu that was starting to scare her. It wasn't that she was afraid of him. She could never be afraid of her mate. But she was afraid that she was losing him.

She wasn't afraid of losing to him in battle. And she sure as hell wasn't afraid of losing him to another girl. She didn't quite know what it was that she was afraid of, but she knew how it affected him. It caused him to stay up almost all hours of the night, tossing and turning. It was the reason he would pace endlessly during the day when there was nothing new to hunt.

Even though he should've been happy to be associating with people, out in the open air, he was restless. He was continually looking to the skies, almost as though he was hoping for an attack. On the few occasions that he did sleep longer than her, she would hear him muttering in his sleep about destroying more dragons. Sometimes she heard him complain about how weak the dragons were and how nothing was a challenge for him anymore.

She wanted to talk to him about this. Whatever it was, it was consuming him. But every time she tried he would brush it aside. Pretend it wasn't happening.

But now it had been almost a year since their last battle. She was hoping this would snap her mate out of his enthrallment with battles and fighting, despite the terrifying dream that was now recurring more frequently. She thought he might even be getting better.

And that was when it happened.

First Natsu's nose started twitching. He started looking toward the sky to the northwest. Then the rest of them smelled it. A dragon.

Instantly Natsu took off, the others following them, but they weren't even close enough to see the creature when a voice spoke in their minds.

 _"_ _So you are the humans that have been destroying dragons. I've come with a message for you. Over the past year we have amassed an army of over 700 dragons. If you turn yourselves over to us, you have our word that we will not touch any of the other humans. However, if you don't turn yourselves in, after we've killed you, we'll destroy every human we find through all realms. In fact, we won't rest till humans no longer exist in this world. Consider your choices wisely humans. You can try to fight us, but even powerful humans like you can't stand against 700 of us."_

Natsu grinned, and he spoke the words aloud. "Where can we find you?"

 _"_ _150 miles to the northwest you will find a wide open plain in the midst of the mountains, with a lake nearby. Wait there, and we will come to you."_

"Excellent." Natsu's face was curved up into a smile, his eyes sparkling with eager anticipation. "We'll get there as soon as possible."

 _"_ _Remember, all 700 of us will come. So don't get any funny ideas about fighting."_

Natsu didn't answer. Instead, he just took off toward the northwest, trying to cover as much ground as possible by sunset.

Wendy wasn't sure how much ground they'd covered when Natsu finally decided to stop for the night. She only knew that she was exhausted. To her relief, instead of pacing about as he usually did at night, her mate lay down almost instantly and pulled her into his embrace. She snuggled softly against him, pushing away the desires that stirred within her at being in such close proximity. She knew what was happening. Her instincts were begging her to complete the mating ritual. To fully become one with the man she'd marked.

But at the same time something was holding her back, and she could only describe this as instinct too. There was something telling her that the moment wasn't quite right yet. She sighed, snuggling into the warmth of her mate's body, letting the closeness erase the worry and doubt from her mind as her eyes drifted closed.

 _Tonight, instead of dreaming of Acnologia, as she had so many times in the past, she dreamed of Gradeeney, the mother she'd been missing for so long. But this was different than most dreams. In this dream, she was already at Fairy Tail, but the guild was almost empty. Behind the sky dragon was Natsu, his eyes a demonic orange color that she'd only seen when he activated his dragon force in anger._

 _Then, to her surprise, Grandeeney spoke to her._

 _"_ _Trust your instincts child."_

 _Wendy was startled. She never remembered the dragon giving her this advice, so why was she dreaming about it. "What do you mean, Grandeeney? What instincts? How will I know what instincts I should follow? I feel so torn…"_

 _"_ _I'm sorry child, but this is as much as I can say. I already risk much just by making conscious contact with you. Just know that you must trust your instincts."_

 _"_ _Grandeeney!" Wendy cried out, but the sky dragon was fading from her dream. Only Natsu remained now, covered with the blood of dragons. There was a fierce smile on his face, and he threw back his head and laughed loudly._

 _"_ _Enough of these weaklings! Is this the best the invincible dragons have to offer? Give me more blood!" He laughed again, a piercing, high-pitched laugh that hurt Wendy's ears. Then slowly his body began to grow and change, wings sprouting from his back, his legs growing thicker with long claws instead of toes and toenails. His arms transformed into forelimbs, and still he grew, till he was as tall as the Fairy Tail guild and almost as large as Acnologia. The orange glow remained in his eyes. "Kill…" He roared out, his eyes turning to Wendy._

She woke up with a start, trembling violently. No matter how many times she had the dream, her reaction remained the same. Laying against her mate's warm body helped, but it was still many minutes before her heart's rapid beating slowed to a more normal rate. Tears dripped onto his chest. Even though she knew the dream wasn't real, her body treated it as though it was actually happening.

It was several minutes before she managed to fall asleep again, this time to a blessedly dreamless slumber.

It was almost afternoon of the next day when they finally reached the field. The scene was unique, and beautiful. An endless field of green stretched out before them, nestled amidst the tops of the mountains, with a shimmering sea of blue on the easternmost edge of the field. The clouds seemed only inches away, floating by so they could almost touch them. All Wendy could think was how much of a shame it was to turn this amazing place into a bloody battlefield.

Natsu sat down on the ground, and she sat down next to him. Nobody was speaking. There was a focus – an intensity – in all of them as they prepared for the upcoming battle. Even Wendy was feeling it. The tension in the air that threatened to snap like a string at any moment, catapulting them into the oncoming storm.

The only one that was different was Natsu. As she leaned against him, Wendy could feel an eerie thrill emanating from her mate. He was quite literally quivering in anticipation of the coming battle, his lips drawn into a thin, eager smile that would've been cute if it weren't for the bloodthirsty glint in his eye. Wendy shuddered, clinging to him. _Please let this be our last battle,_ she thought bitterly. She didn't know how much more of this Natsu she could bear.

Then they heard it. The roaring and rushing of wings as the army approached. It was truly a sight to behold. 700 dragons, all approaching in a coordinated attack pattern. The leader, an enormous earth dragon with long, twisted horns roared a loud challenge as it approached.

Natsu entered his dragon force instantly, roaring his own challenge in response. And then they were off. Wendy followed him in, quickly casting all the support spells she knew on her fellow dragon slayers. Then she too joined the fray.

As she hit a nearby lightning dragon with a wing attack, Wendy realized just how much more powerful she'd grown in the last 3 years. Before coming to this world, her wing attack wouldn't have even bruised a full-grown dragon. Hell, it might not even have tickled an adult dragon. But now she watched as her wing attack ripped off the dragon's arm, blood spurting from the open wound.

The dragon roared in pain, shooting a lightning breath attack at the sky dragon slayer. Wendy dodged the attack fairly easy before coming in with her talon attack. She dodged the creature's claws, feeling them whiz by inches from her face, and delivered a powerful kick to the chest. She felt the scales break beneath her foot, and the familiar feeling of her leg plunging down to the knee inside the creature's flesh. Then she focused as much wind as she could into the limb, releasing it in a swirling gust through the creature's heart.

 _One down…_ She narrowly dodged another claw from behind her and turned to see a shadow dragon that had tried to take advantage of her momentary pause. She shot a breath attack at it, but it dodged fairly easily, coming at her again fast. She avoided its attack, and managed to hit it with a simple fist strike as it flew by. Her attack made contact with the wing, which caused a noticeable slow in its flying speed.

Pressing her advantage the girl attacked, hitting the dragon in the head. Her talon attack caught the surprised dragon, which couldn't get out of the way because of its wing, and threw it to the ground. Brains spattered her legs and dress, but she was already moving to her next target.

Wendy killed 30 more dragons before she slowly drifted back to the ground and slumped down, exhausted. Nearby she saw Gajeel and Laxus, already hitting the ground. They were all very powerful, but Natsu, who'd lived for hunting dragons for the last 3 years, wasn't even tiring. She wanted to watch. To see the battle to the end. But she couldn't keep her eyes open. She just didn't have enough strength left.

 _Trust your instincts, child!_ Wendy jolted awake, wondering how long she'd been asleep on the battlefield. A quick look around told her the battle was over. Bodies lay strewn everywhere. Dead dragons of every kind, their corpses piled high on the blood-covered landscape. Not far away was a new crater formed during the long battle. And the crater was filled almost to the brim with the blood of the dragons.

But it was the man in the midst of this sea of blood that caught her attention. Although he was covered from head to foot with the blood of the dragons he'd killed, there was no mistaking him. It was Natsu. Her chosen mate. The man who had become the alpha in their little dragon slayer community.

"NATSU!" She cried out, standing and running toward him. "NATSU!"

But something was wrong. He didn't run to her as he should. Didn't even look at her. Instead he screamed out a loud, incoherent victory cry. Blood ran down his face and over his lips, dripping into his open mouth. Wendy shuddered, but her heart raced out to the man. She had to do something. But what? What could she do?

 _Trust your instincts!_ Wendy gulped. Her instincts were crazy, but…

She activated her dragon force again and swooped down, pulling her beloved out of the sea of blood. She dragged him to the lake they'd seen coming in, mercifully untouched by the bloodbathe that bathed the plains not far away, and pulled them both into it. The water washed the blood from the pair, and Wendy pulled Natsu to shore.

Once they were both ashore, she leapt onto him, forcing his lips into a kiss. This seemed to catch his attention, as he began to kiss her back, responding to the love of his mate. Wendy ripped his vest, pants, and boxers off his body before removing her own clothing quickly. She was happy to see the anger and destruction in his eyes recede a little. In their place was a longing and lust that made her heart leap and her nether regions hot. Then, with a feral growl he was on top of her, his lips crashing against hers.

Wendy moaned as his warm lips touched her neck, creating a thrilling sensation that left her begging for more. He kissed her again, this time biting just a little into her skin. The sensation of his teeth made her moan a soft, feminine purr.

Then he moved down to her breasts, his tongue licking and caressing each in turn. Tingles ran thorugh her body at the touch, causing the heat to build within her belly. She moaned softly as he nibbled at her right nipple, his other hand squeezing her left nipple between two fingers.

Then she felt something pressing against her wet pussy, and she had just enough time to prepare herself mentally before the older dragon slayer thrust through her barrier. She screamed loudly in pain, then cried out in ecstasy as she felt the mating ritual they'd begun so long ago completed. It was as though Natsu's entire soul poured into her. All his love, his fear, his joy, his sadness, and…

She felt her own spirit recoil slightly at this sensation. It wasn't pure, like the rest of him. It was a hunger. A dark, insatiable hunger for the blood of powerful enemies. It was repulsive to her. She couldn't accept that into her being.

Natsu's spirit began to pull back, receding from its joining with her own. And Wendy panicked. She couldn't explain why, but she knew this wasn't right. If the joining wasn't completed she somehow knew that her worst nightmares would come true. She cried out to him in her mind, begging him to come back to her.

 _I can't Wendy… You're disgusted by me._

 _No, I'm not disgusted by you… It's just that bloodlust. That desire to kill. That's not you, Natsu._

 _This is me… All of me… Am I not good enough to be your mate Wendy?..._

 _NO!_ She screamed internally, then was surprised to hear it echo from her lips. She was desperate. She couldn't let this fall apart now. But the only way she could do it…

 _'_ _Trust your instincts Wendy'_ Grandeeney's voice echoed in her mind. Suddenly she understood. If she wanted Natsu to remain Natsu, she had to accept him. All of him. Not just the parts she was happiest with. The parts she was most comfortable with. She also had to accept the Natsu that she feared. The part of him that she didn't enjoy feeling. She opened herself again, praying she wasn't too late. _I'm sorry Natsu… I understand now. I do love you. All of you._

As he invaded her again she fought back the repulsion that flooded her from the bloodlust. She felt their spirits join as the dragon slayer rested inside her, his hips remaining stilly above her. She leaned up to capture his lips in a gentle kiss, and then something surprising happened.

She felt the bloodlust beginning to recede, replaced by an intense love and desire to protect those she – no – they – cared about. As the older dragon slayer began to move his hips slowly, Wendy could feel that the bloodlust was back under control. Buried under the deeper emotion to love and protect his mate. She moaned softly as his enormous manhood rubbed the walls of her pussy, ecstatic that she was finally with her mate. Ecstatic that he wasn't turning into a monster. But most of all, in bliss because he was really and truly her mate now.

She moaned again as he increased the pace, her body and soul fully joined to her lover. His hot breath brushed across her neck, creating a small, prickly feeling along her nerve endings. She could feel the heat radiating from his chiseled torso. Most of all, she could feel his hot member rubbing against her inner walls, coated with her love juices. She moaned again, feeling more connected to her lover than ever before.

She shivered in pleasure as his hot lips captured her nipple, his pace never slowing. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling his head back up so she could meet his lips. Her breath was coming faster as his hot member filled her, She wrapped her legs around him, grinding her hips against him as he slammed in and out of her.

There were no words that could describe the passion she felt in those moments, as the knot in her stomach built up. Her mind was beyond reason. She wanted the moment to last forever, but it was over all too soon. She felt her body convulsing as she was filled with the pleasure of release. Moments later, he gave a feral roar and she felt his seed flooding her womb. She mewled in pleasure, quickly reaching up to capture his lips again. She could feel his hardness still inside of her and knew they weren't done yet, but he seemed to understand that she wasn't quite ready for him to start moving again yet. She wondered if the experience was the same for him as it was for her. If he felt every fiber of her being as acutely as she was feeling all of him.

Then he began to kiss her breasts again, slowly, and she felt the heat beginning to build again…

 **~~~Gajeel and Laxus~~~**

Gajeel snapped awake when he heard a loud, feral roar coming from behind them. He sprang to his feet, first noticing that the ground was littered with dragon corpses all around. In fact, it didn't seem that there was a dragon left alive. But then, where did that roar come from?

He saw Laxus standing nearby, also looking around as though for the source of this phantom roar. But it was quiet again for several minutes. Finally Gajeel shrugged.

"Guess it was nothing," he said to no one in particular, though Laxus was right next to him.

"Guess not," the lightning mage said. "Looks like the war's over though."

"Thank you captain obvious…" Gajeel said. Then he looked around. "Say, where are Natsu and—"

Another loud roar interrupted his questions, and this time Gajeel could swear he heard another feral voice, not quite as loud as the first. He took one look at Laxus before sprinting off to the east where the sounds were coming from. Laxus was right on his heels.

Suddenly he skidded to a stop and stared for a moment before gulping and turning around. Laxus crashed into him, causing the duo to tumble head over heels.

"Dude what the fuck?" Laxus yelled at him as he sprang to his feet. Then he looked up toward the east and quickly turned away, his face turning beet red.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Silence. Awkward silence.

"They are so not finding out about this."

"Definitely not."

"Natsu would kill us."

"Only if Wendy didn't first."

Laxus shuddered, and the two quickly took off, rushing to get away from the scene as quickly as they could.

It was hours later when they knew the roars were finally over for the night. And they only knew for certain because Natsu and Wendy joined them in their little camp, which was as far away from the bloody battlefield as they could get. They looked at the pair, noticing that Wendy's hair was streaked with pink and Natsu's with dark blue. Also, if it was possible, the pair seemed even closer than before as Wendy snuggled up.

But Gajeel was somewhat relieved to note that, for the first time in a long time, the alpha dragon slayer actually looked content to be laying there with his mate. He hoped this meant he was over his infatuation with killing. But only time would tell.


	5. Chapter 5

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the Characters**

* * *

 **-x790, December-**

"Mama! Wook I Da!"

A blue-haired boy of just over 1 proudly spouted a tiny flame from his mouth. Then looked to his mother for approval.

"That's great Igneel!" Wendy Dragneel said, grinning widely at her little boy. "Natsu, look! Do it again for your daddy Igneel!"

Igneel complied happily, another small flame appearing in his mouth. It fizzled out after only a few inches, but the boy was still proud of his accomplishment.

"His magic's already starting to show," Wendy said proudly to her mate as the two snuggled together.

Natsu grinned at the little boy as he spouted another tiny flame from his mouth. "Looks like he takes after his father."

"A little too much," Wendy agreed as the rambunctious young boy, who had just recently started walking, toddled over to Gajeel and smacked him on the nose.

"Watch it shrimp," the iron dragon slayer growled.

The group was sitting near a large campfire, set amidst a group of 12 tents. There were no actual buildings just yet. People weren't ready to build cities and towns with dragons still around, no matter how small in number. At least in this area.

"I can't wait to get back to Lydia and Erza," Wendy commented as she looked up at the blue sky. "I know we're helping this region get established, but I really miss our oldest friends. And besides… They don't quite trust us here yet," she sighed.

"I know," Natsu said, hugging her tightly. "But you can't really blame them too much. Humans with the power to kill dragons is really hard for them to imagine here."

"I guess.." Wendy said, snuggling against him. "At least we're together, with Igneel." She smiled at the little blue-haired toddler.

"Yeah," Natsu grinned. "Won't Fairy Tail be surprised."

"Natsu, what if we never get back to Fairy Tail?"

"We'll make it back somehow Wendy," Natsu said. "We've got everyone working on a way to get us back. Erza's looking for some library that holds all their ancient knowledge about magic."

"But what if we don't?" Wendy asked, moving to his lap and curling up against him.

"Well," Natsu said with a grin. "We'll just do what we always do. Move on toward the future. We'll miss them, for sure, but all we can do is keep living. They'll be fine without us, after all."

Wendy sighed. "I guess you're right. I was just thinking how hard it would be to never see Er-chan or Levy-chan again."

Natsu just ruffled her hair a little. "We'll get back soon Wendy, and then we can really work on that girl you want."

Since their initial mating and conception, Wendy and Natsu had used birth control to avoid having a second child. So far it had worked fine. But Wendy had recently been wanting a little girl that she could do things with. Like making dresses, braiding hair, and shopping. Not that there was much shopping in this world…

Just then, Natsu's sensitive ears picked up a roar, miles from their current location.

"We've got dragons approaching," he warned the others.

Quickly they got Igneel into their tent. "Stay here Igneel," Wendy said quietly, patting the blue-haired boy on the head. Then she followed Natsu, with Gajeel and Laxus right behind, to face the incoming threat.

"There's at least 20 of them," Natsu said a few minutes later as the dragons came into sight. "Must be the overseers of this region."

In their years fighting dragons, the group had learned that every region was governed, in a way, by a strong group of dragons called overseers. These dragons would address any threats from other dragon clans, make sure that the dragons in the region were abiding by the region's laws, and more recently attempt to deal with the human dragon slayers. The last one hadn't gone well for any of them.

This group was no exception. Though they were certainly fearsome, and would've been more than a match for all the dragon slayers together 6 years ago, now they were just average foes. Their only advantage was their numbers, but Natsu could've taken them on by himself. The others were just there to keep their fighting instincts honed and keep their magic power levels high.

Natsu had just taken down the first dragon when suddenly he felt something through his family sense link. A sense of happiness and curiosity was turning to fear. Then suddenly pain. Then the sensation was gone.

"Wendy!" Natsu whipped around, but his mate was already headed back for the village. "You finish the fight Natsu!" She called out. "I'm faster than you when I need to be anyway!"

He couldn't argue with that, but something told him it was already too late.

The battle wasn't much to speak of. Natsu had planned to toy with them a little and test their strength, but he was in a hurry now. Using his strongest attacks, he blasted through the dragons in quick succession, leaving Gajeel and Laxus with only 3 kills each, and headed back to the village. He was just on his last kill when his sharp ears picked up Wendy's high-pitched wail from the village.

"Shit!" He turned and rushed back to the village, feeling shock and pain, followed by murderous rage through his mating link. Gajeel and Laxus were right behind him.

What they saw when they arrived was a shock to everyone. The village was gone. Shreds of tents were strewn everywhere around the area, some hundreds of feet from where they had been previously. Chunks of shredded flesh were strewn along the ground, like a bloody shrine arranged in a circular pattern. Here and there he could see a recognizable limb with a bloody bone protruding from the end.

Wendy was on her knees in the center of the circle, facing away from them and wailing loudly. As Natsu drew closer, he saw that she was cradling Igneel in her arms. But Igneel was limp and unresponsive, his head turned at such an unnatural angle toward his chest that it took a moment for Natsu to realize that it was actually severed.

"What… happened?" He asked through gritted teeth, his rage boiling over as he looked at the dead body of his son.

"They killed him." Wendy wailed. "When I got back they said he was a monster that needed to be destroyed – before he was old enough to destroy them."

Natsu put his arms around his mate, ignoring the blood that was splattered all over her clothing. "They killed a baby?... And they call themselves humans?"

Wendy was still crying, but her wails began to recede a little in the arms of her mate. "I killed them all, Natsu." She said through her tears. "Like they were animals. I ripped the one who did it apart with my own hands, and then let my wind take care of the rest…"

Natsu just held her, not saying anything. He couldn't bring himself to feel pity for the human tribe that had taken the life of his son. As he looked at the eyes that had just hours ago been overflowing with joy and curiosity, now closed forever in the endless sleep of death, rage boiled again inside of him. As he felt the tears of his mate against his chest, both from the pain of losing their child and the guilt she now had to bear, his anger rose even further.

"They weren't people, Wendy," he whispered, the venom he felt seeping into his voice. "No human would murder a little child in cold blood."

Wendy just sobbed into his chest, still holding Igneel's broken body in her arms.

 **-x791, Tenrou Island-**

"So master," Wendy said quietly. "If you choose to kick me out of the guild, I understand."

At this point the ship had already arrived in Hargeon, and the group was a little way outside of town. They had stopped to relax in a vacant meadow.

"But if she leaves, I'm going with her." Natsu added. "She is my mate after all."

"Natsu's our alpha. If he leaves, I'm going with him." Gajeel declared.

"What about you Laxus?" Makarov asked the lightning dragon slayer. "I know you don't have the same dragon instincts as the first generation."

"It's the same for me. I may not have the dragon instincts that the first generations are subject to, but that doesn't mean that I don't have the loyalty. Natsu's come a long way from the snot-nosed brat he was 7 years ago. I'm sticking with him."

Makarov sighed. "So, more or less in your 7 years that you were gone, Natsu almost became a destruction-obsessed dragon, Wendy slaughtered a village. Anything else you want to add?"

"How about the part where we're all super-powerful?" Gajeel grinned. "Not to brag or nothin."

"Well, Fairy Tail believes in second chances," Makarov said as Lucy and Gray still stared at Wendy disbelievingly. "I'm not saying what happened was excusable, but it's obvious that you regretted your mistake. You're welcome back in the guild."

"Thanks Gramps."

"But you still haven't explained how you got back here," Makarov said.

"Well, we don't really know…" Laxus said. "We'd just finished a big party at the new capital city, when all of the sudden we were all surrounded by this weird white glow."

"We were all unconscious for a few minutes, and when we woke up we were on Tenroujima." Natsu said.

"So one thing I don't get," Gray said. He faced Gajeel. "You called Natsu your 'alpha.' What the fuck does that mean? Aren't you rivals anymore?"

Gajeel smirked. "You wouldn't understand, popsicle. All you need to know is you don't have a chance to beat any of us."

"Hey!" Gray said. "I may not have beat Natsu, but he's the strongest out of all of you. I bet I could at least take Wendy."

"Gehe," was all Gajeel said.

"You do realize Wendy's killed her fair share of dragons too, right?" Natsu asked. "Not that I object to her kicking your weak ass, of course."

"So you say," Gray said. "But I can't imagine our sweet, innocent Wendy killing dragons. I think you guys are making a lot of shit up. Maybe even the whole mate thing."

Wendy looked furious, but Natsu just laughed. "You're an idiot Gray," he said.

"Say that again, flame brain." Gray growled.

"I said you're an idiot. What possible reason could we have for making anything up? All you've managed to do is piss off Wendy, which also means you probably wouldn't want to fight her right now. She wouldn't hold back as much as she should…"

Looking closer, the others could see small streaks of blue in Natsu's messy hair and streaks of pink in Wendy's dark blue hair. So it appeared there was some kind of visible sign of their mating still present.

"I'm gonna' kick Wendy's ass just to prove to you hotshots you ain't the hot shit you think you are," Gray growled.

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you," Natsu said as he released the younger dragon-slayer's hand. "Try to hold back Wendy."

"I'll do my best Natsu-kun," she said.

"Alright, let's get this party started!" Gray grinned, opening with his cannon, one of his stronger attacks.

Wendy didn't move. But suddenly a rush of magic power emanated from her as she entered her dragon force. The large blast of ice crumbled to pieces as it impacted under the sheer force of the winds surrounding her.

"Oh shit," Gray muttered. "Ice make: Absolute Zero Gungnir!" The spear that erupted under Wendy was enormous, nearly 3 times the size of the typical move. But Wendy jumped up, and before the spear even reached her it was shattered to pieces by her wind.

"Sky Dragon's Roar!" A cone of wind hit gray full force, slamming him to the ground hard. Gray got to his feet, bruised and scratched by the attack.

"Is that all you've got?" he taunted. "Ice Make: Absolute Zero Dragon!"

Erza sighed as he pulled out his strongest move and watched as Wendy shattered it with a wing attack. She then started an attack Erza had never seen her use before, but she noticed Natsu shake his head at her. She stopped the attack. "Sky Dragon's Talon!" She hit Gray again, her attack driving him a hundred feet back and into the ground hard. This time, the ice make mage didn't get up. Mira and Lucy ran to check on him.

"He's just unconscious," Lucy reported.

"Master," Erza said quietly. "Will we permit them to participate in the Grand Magic Games this year?"

"I don't see why not," Makarov said. "The reward would be ours for sure this year. Not even Jura would be able to rival our team with just one of them on it."

"Wait. They've been off in some other dimension for 7 years while we trained our asses off, and they just waltz back in and get a spot just like that?"

"Would you like to fight one of them for a spot?" Makarov countered.

"Umm…" Lucy looked away. "I would've fought Wendy till about 5 minutes ago…"

"Do you really think that's fair master?" Mira asked. "I mean, having a team with four dragon slayers who have actually physically killed dragons?"

"What? Saber's got dragon slayers. And they both claim to have killed the dragons that raised them."

"Yes, but we've seen Saber's power and we've seen our dragon slayers. We both know they're not even close to each other."

"You say someone else has dragon slayers in their guild?" Natsu asked, interested now.

"Yeah. Two guys named Sting and Rogue. They both claim that they killed the dragons that taught them their dragon slayer magic."

"Really? Maybe they would be fun to fight then?" Natsu said, his eyes lighting up.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up," Erza said, frowning. "Mira beat Sting last year and Gray fought Rogue to a draw."

"That doesn't sound right," Natsu said. "If they killed a full-fledged dragon, they should have more power than that."

Erza couldn't help wondering about that herself. When Natsu had disappeared on Tenroujima, he'd already been around the power level she'd seen from Sting and Rogue. But from what she'd heard today, Natsu initially struggled to even kill young dragons. For a duo who supposedly killed their teachers – adult dragons – when they were really young, the two dragon slayers had very little magic power.

"Maybe they were holding back?" Natsu shrugged. "Either way, it'll be interesting to fight a dragon slayer. I hope."

"Ge He." Gajeel commented.

"Well, the guild will be excited to see you, Natsu." Makarov said as they got up again, heading back into Hargeon to board a train. They would've already been on their way, but they wanted a more private place to discuss the events of the last 7 years.

Soon they were on the train, on the way back. Gajeel and Natsu instantly doubled over. "Shit." Natsu groaned. "I forgot how bad this is…"

Wendy pulled her mate's head into her lap. For whatever reason, she was still unaffected by the motion sickness that plagued the other dragon slayers.

"What about me?" Groaned Gajeel, across the way.

"You can use Laxus's lap," Wendy offered with a smirk.

"Think about it and you die," the lightning dragon slayer threatened.

Erza watched the group, a little sadness coming unbidden to her heart. As happy as she was to see them back, it was sad to see that they were very different from the people who'd disappeared all those years before. Natsu was smarter and kept his power in check better, which was a good thing, she supposed, but he still seemed to enjoy the thought of a good fight as much as ever. Still, the knowledge that he would never again burst through the doors of the guild with a boisterous "fight me Erza!" tore at her heart. She remembered fondly the hundreds of times she'd put him in his place with her sword. Or when she'd broken up his constant battles with Gray.

And Wendy. No longer cute, innocent Wendy, the girl had seen more death and destruction than all of them combined. She had visible scars from her own battles on her arms and legs, and Erza remembered that she couldn't use her healing magic to heal her own wounds.

Gajeel seemed a little less cocky than before too, acknowledging Natsu as his superior in battle was really a big step for the dragon slayer. And Laxus. Well, perhaps Laxus had changed the least, other than his devotion to the group he'd spent the last 7 years fighting alongside.

 _No wonder they're so much stronger than us,_ she thought. _We've spent the last 7 years in the comfort of our guild, training for little things like the Grand Magic Games. They've been fighting for their own lives and the lives of the people of another world._

"Say Erza," She looked up to see Lucy speaking. "When you see them like that, doesn't it make you a little bit jealous?" She motioned to Wendy, who was lovingly caressing Natsu's cheek as he slept.

Erza sighed. "Honestly, yes. But there's not much I can do about it. They're already married, for all practical purposes."

"They were married in another world though," Lucy said. "So maybe it doesn't count in this world."

Erza rolled her eyes. "You're just grasping at straws, Lucy. Take one look at those two and tell me anyone besides Wendy has a chance."

Lucy sighed and looked down. Even she couldn't deny that Wendy and Natsu acted like they belonged together.

The walk from the train station to the guild seemed unusually long. People were coming out from the shops and the square to stare at the dragon slayers. The news of their death had circulated years ago, so it came as a huge shock to see them walking through the streets of Magnolia.

When they got back to the guild, Natsu flung the door open with his traditional boisterous attitude. "We're back!" He called out, scanning the guild.

Erza watched as the mages from the old days swarmed the dragon slayers, many hugging them and breaking into tears. Elfman tried to punch Natsu and got thrown into a wall.

Then Lisanna came rushing from the bar, diving at Natsu and catching him in a bear hug. "I thought you were dead Natsu," she said, tears in her eyes.

As she clung to the dragon slayer, Erza felt Wendy's magic power start to fluctuate. "Umm, Lisanna," she said hastily. "I think you've welcomed Natsu long enough."

Lisanna blushed as she let go of the dragon slayer, and Wendy hurriedly grabbed his hand, clinging to his arm.

The group was bombarded by questions, but ultimately Makarov stopped their advances. "Alright people. There will be enough stories to go around later. The dragon slayers haven't exactly been on vacation for the last 7 years, so we're going to let them get a night of sleep before the party tomorrow. Do any of you have anything to say to the guild right now?"

"Yes," Wendy said, stepping forward and saying in a loud, clear voice that surprised everyone. "This is your first and last warning, for all girls in the guild. Natsu Dragneel is my mate. And dragons are _very_ possessive of their mates. So don't touch him unless you're ready to face my wrath."

She then took Natsu's hand, her face returning to its characteristic smile.

Just then Happy decided he needed to comment on something. "Gajeel and Laxus have a really close relationship now," he said loudly. "In fact, I'm thinking maybe they liiike—"

Happy never got to finish his sentence as he was fried by a lightning blast and hit with an iron club at the same time. "In your dreams, cat."

There was a lot of laughter in the guild. Except for Freed, who seemed to be on the verge of tears for some reason.

"Well, we're out of here then," Natsu grinned. "Hope you're all ready for a party tomorrow!" Then the dragon slayers headed out and back to their respective houses.

As they were leaving, Erza overheard Natsu ask Wendy, "so when do you want to tell them?"

"I don't know," Wendy said with a shrug. "Maybe tomorrow."

And then their voices faded off into the distance as they headed toward Natsu's house.


	6. Chapter 6

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. Mashima owns them**

* * *

"Hey master, where's Natsu?" Erza asked as she came into the guild.

"I'm not sure. He came in this morning with Wendy, but they headed to the infirmary about an hour ago."

"The infirmary?" Erza was surprised. Could they have had a fight last night? Was it even possible for them to fight and actually injure each other? She couldn't imagine that, but… "Are they ok?"

"They looked like they were fine," Makarov said. "When I asked what they were up to neither of them would tell me anything except they needed to see Porlyusica."

Erza started to head toward the infirmary, ready to beat some answers out of the pink-haired dragon slayer, but Makarov stopped her.

"Probably not a good idea," he said. "They said everyone will know why they're in there when the time is right."

"When the time is right?" Erza was even more confused now.

Just then Natsu and Wendy came out of the infirmary. Wendy was holding Natsu's arm tightly, and Natsu had a big stupid grin plastered on his face.

"Well, whatever you went in for, I'm guessing you got good news brats." Makarov said.

"Oh, it wasn't exactly news," Natsu said. "But we wanted Porlyusica to confirm it before we told the guild. But it's official now. In 6 months the guild is going to have 2 new members."

Makarov's and Erza's jaws both dropped. Erza, looking at Wendy, wondered how she hadn't noticed the slight bulge in the girl's stomach before. "Con-congratulations." She stammered.

"Thanks," Natsu said, still grinning ear to ear. "We're gonna' tell the rest of the guild when the party starts."

Erza watched as Wendy and Natsu headed over to a table with Wendy. The two sat next to each other, Wendy leaning her head against Natsu's shoulder while Natsu's arm rested around her waist. She then went over to the counter, starting to prepare the bar area for Mirajane. _She should've been here by now. Or at least Lisanna or Kinana._

Just at that moment, Mirajane and Lisanna came in to the guild. "Sorry we're late," Mira said before Erza could tear into her for her tardiness. "It was a rather long night for both of us, and _somebody_ forgot to set her alarm clock."

"Hey," Lisanna protested. "It wouldn't matter if you would stop destroying your alarm clock and going back to sleep."

"Meh," Mira brushed her retort off and headed over to the bar. "No time for fighting. We've gotta' get ready for the welcome home party."

Erza grinned as she watched the two go about their preparations. One of the first things they did was remove anything that couldn't be easily replaced from the guild hall. Then they checked the bar's steel plating to make sure it wouldn't get broken, and started bringing up kegs from the storage room.

Slowly people began to trickle into Fairy Tail. Before long the guild hall was full, everyone looking forward to the promised party to celebrate the return of their dragon slayers. _How are they all taking it, I wonder…_

She looked at Gray, who was sulking at a table. The ice mage hadn't taken well to the news that his rival had come back much more powerful than he was. Juvia was as clingy as ever, of course. In a lot of ways, Erza was amazed that the two weren't married yet.

She then shifted to Lucy, who was busying herself with talking to Lisanna. Those two were the most affected by Natsu's return, and in particular by his relationship with Wendy. That was to be expected, though. They'd been the most overt of anyone concerning their feelings.

Mirajane hid whatever feelings she had well, as usual. She had her typical, easy smile as she bustled about the bar, bringing out a couple more kegs for Cana's spot and Makarov's spot. She wasn't certain, but if she was reading the take over mage correctly, she was a little disappointed by Natsu's relationship status as well.

Elfman was just happy that the dragon slayers were back. Though he'd been disappointed to discover that Natsu was on an entirely different level from him now. Levy was talking to Gajeel, who seemed to be a little more receptive to her advances than when they'd left.

Freed was rejoicing over Laxus' return, much to the lightning mage's consternation. Bickslow and Ever were also happy to see the Raijinshuu tribe leader. But all three were shocked when the lightning dragon slayer deferred to Natsu's leadership.

Just then she saw Asuka, Alzack and Bisca's daughter, approaching Natsu hand in hand with Jaina, Elfman and Evergreen's daughter. It was Asuna who spoke first. "Are you Natsu-sama?"

"Just Natsu will do," the dragon slayer replied with a grin. "And who are you lovely ladies?"

The girls giggled. "I'm Asuka," the green haired girl proclaimed proudly.

"Jaina," The silver-white haired mage looked at the ground shyly. "Daddy talks about you a lot."

"Oh does he now?" Natsu grinned. "What does he say about me?"

"Just that you were the bravest man in the whole guild. And the most loyal. Of course, that's when he thought you were gone forever." Jaina said. "Last night he said something about beating the shit out of you."

"Jaina!" Evergreen exclaimed, looking horrified. "You will not say that word again!"

"What word is that mommy?" Jaina asked.

"The one you just said." Evergreen replied.

"Which one?" Jaina asked. "I said a lot of words."

"The four letter word that starts with S…"

"Shit? Is there something wrong with saying shit?"

"Of course there's something wrong with it. It's a word you should never say."

"But dad says shit all the time."

Evergreen glared at Elfman. "I know. That's because nobody ever taught him to behave."

Elfman shrugged the glare off. "It's not like it's really that bad a word."

Suddenly there was a chilling, demonic aura behind him. A devilish, and very angry female voice said, "just what are you teaching my niece to say, onii-san? I see you need a refresher on how to act in front of children."

"Help!" Elfman squeaked as Mirajane grabbed him by the ear and physically dragged him into another room.

Erza didn't feel sorry for the man for a moment. In fact, if not for Mira's timely action she would've disciplined him herself.

She then looked back over at Natsu, wondering why he wasn't making his big announcement yet. Pretty much everyone was here. Then she noticed him stealing glances at the door hiding Elfman and Mira and realized he was waiting for the two to get back before letting his secret slip.

Her suspicion was confirmed when Mira came back out of the room, a bruised and sullen Elfman following her. Then Natsu went up to the front of the guild with Wendy in tow.

"We have an announcement to make!" He boomed, his voice so loud that it almost hurt Erza's ears. He then looked around, watching as everyone became absolutely silent before continuing. "In 6 months, Fairy Tail will have 2 new members added to our family!"

Everyone remained silent for a few minutes. Mira had a huge smile on her face, which indicated she must've figured it out. Gray, on the other hand, looked puzzled still.

"What does that mean? How do you know we're getting new members, and why should we care flame brain?"

Natsu got a big grin on his face. "It means we're gonna' have twins, popsicle. In 6 months we'll welcome Daisuke Dragneel and Grandeeney Dragneel."

Gray's mouth dropped open, shut, and dropped open again. As cheers and congrats rang out throughout the guild, she could see Gray thinking of a retort. The ice mage was still sore at being beaten so easily by his long time rival, plus he was already finishing his second beer of the morning, so Erza headed over to shut him up before he said something stupid.

"Hey flame brain. What's with the names? Grandeeney and Daisuke? I thought for sure a sentimental idiot like you would name one of them Igneel after your imaginary father…"

Too late. She glanced fearfully over as the smiles fled from Natsu and Wendy's faces. Gajeel and Laxus were also flaring up.

"Gajeel," Natsu's tone was icier than Gray's magic. "Please remove the ice dipshit from my sight. Now."

Gajeel grabbed Gray, who started to protest, and punched him hard in the stomach. Then he picked the mage up as he doubled over, throwing him over his shoulder and heading outside.

As a teary-eyed Wendy buried his face in his chest, Natsu turned back to the guild at large.

"For those that haven't heard yet," he said, quieter, but still loud enough that everyone could hear, "Our first child, Igneel Dragneel, died when he was barely over a year old. So this is your first and only warning. Any of you who make a joke or dig about that in my presence will be lucky to escape with the beating Gray's getting now."

He then sighed, picking Wendy up bridal style in his arms. "And as much as I hate to miss a good party, Wendy and I are leaving now."

It was some time after Natsu and Wendy left that Gray came back in, severely bruised and scraped up from his encounter with Gajeel. When he came in and sat down by Juvia and Lucy, Erza sat next to him.

"That fucking hothead thinks he's hot shit now," Gray scowled. "What is he, like some gang lord that I get my ass beat for a little slip?"

"Gray," Erza said, her eyes hard. "That was more than a 'little slip.' And I think you got off easy?"

"What do you mean I got off easy?" Gray practically yelled. "Gajeel beat the shit out of me!"

"I mean," Erza said, "that Natsu didn't administer the beating. He's learned some restraint since we knew him before."

"Hmph." Gray scowled at the table. "So I forgot one little detail. What's the big deal?"

"Well," Erza said. "I was going to see if you needed some pain-relieving cream for your cuts and scratches. But now even if you did want some, you're not getting them from me."

"That's mean, Erza!" Gray said. "This really hurts!"

"Good," she said, getting up from the table to get some strawberry cake from Mira. Strawberry cake always helped to lighten her mood. "Maybe it'll help you think more clearly next time you're about to make a dumb wisecrack."

For the first time since they got back, the guild was all in a somber mood, and with Wendy and Natsu both gone, it wasn't long before the other two guests of honor also left. Erza sat at the bar and stuffed her face with strawberry cake.

 **~~~Natsu~~~**

Natsu carried Wendy all the way back to their little home in the woods. She was curled up against him, and though she made no sound the wetness from her tears still spread out across the shoulder of his vest.

Natsu had barely been able to restrain himself from beating the shit out of that ice pervert. In fact, his instinctual need to comfort his mate was the only thing that spared Gray from his wrath. He could trust Gajeel to beat some sense into the stripper, though.

If he was honest, he was only just holding himself back from tears. The memory of seeing his precious child dead in his mates arms was all too clear in his mind, pulled back fresh by a few thoughtless words. He could almost hear the child's first laugh in his mind. He'd just gotten back from a hunt, barely 4 months after Igneel's birth. When Wendy had come out to meet him, she'd been holding Igneel, who was making little cooing noises at her. As he leaned in for a kiss, the baby had flailed his arms, smacking Natsu directly on the nose in the process. He apparently found it hilarious, because after laughing cutely he'd done it again – on purpose this time. And laughed again.

He remembered how proud the child had been when he figured out how to use his legs. He was barely 8 months old when he took his first steps, and had been exceptionally pleased with himself. So pleased he'd tried to break out into a run, only to fall flat on his face. Natsu still remembered the glare Wendy had shot him as she ran to make sure their baby was alright while he stood there laughing his ass off.

And, of course, he and Wendy had spent months arguing over whether Igneel's first word would be "mama" or "dada." So both were surprised when, at the age of 11 months, the child had tugged violently at Wendy's top and declared "eat." He then got the most confused and pouty look ever on his face as Natsu and Wendy both burst into fits of giggles.

Natsu felt the tears rolling down his cheeks. The joy that the child had brought to his heart could only be equaled by the pain he'd experienced the day he was gone. Even with two more children on the way, that single life could not be replaced. There was a spot in his heart that would always be reserved for little Igneel, and no amount of time could ever fully heal the wound.

"Natsu…" Wendy whispered into his chest. "I'm scared."

"There's no reason to be scared, Wendy." Natsu said, kissing the top of her forehead through his tears. "I'm here with you. Everything's gonna' be fine."

"But what if we can't protect them, Natsu?" She asked, her tears flowing thicker and heavier again. "What if they're gone the moment we turn our back?" Her fingers dug into his back. "I couldn't bear to lose another child Natsu…"

"We're not going to lose either of them, Wendy." Natsu said quietly. "This isn't some tribe of people we don't even really know. This is Fairy Tail. And they're nothing if not loyal and dependable."

"I know," Wendy buried her face in his chest. "But I'm still scared."

As he looked at his strong, confident partner in this broken state, Natsu's anger at the ice mage rose again. In mere minutes, the new, strong, ever confident Wendy Dragneel had become the old, timid Wendy Marvell, insecure in her ability to fight. In her ability to protect what she wanted to protect. Not since she was a young girl had he seen her doubting herself so much. Except for after the actual death. Then she was inconsolable for days.

He pulled her close to him, trying to shake the memories and the pain from his mind. She nuzzled his chest, and he planted his lips gently on the top of her head. He carried her over to the couch, where he sat back with Wendy now on his lap. It was almost an hour before the tears finally subsided.

They'd been sitting peacefully for several minutes before Wendy's stomach suddenly gurgled. Natsu grinned a little, rubbing Wendy's belly with his hand. "Hungry Wendy?"

She blushed a little. "Of course I am, baka. I am carrying two children after all. And I've barely eaten today."

Natsu gave her ass an affectionate squeeze. "Better get off your ass so I can make some lunch then," he said.

She wriggled her firm bottom against him, tilting her head up to catch his gaze. "Well, if you really want me to…"

"Well," Natsu said, leaning down so his hot breath was as close to her ear as it could be. "In 20 minutes I'm either going to be feeding you or filling you up. You've got 3 seconds to decide which…"

She got off his lap quickly. "Never make a pregnant woman wait for food," she growled at him.

"Sex after dinner then," Natsu grinned. "Got it."

Before she could retort he got to the kitchen and got busy.

 **~~~Mira~~~**

"No more Gray, you've had enough already."

The ice mage staggered up to the bar, apparently not hearing her. "Another beer, Mira."

"No." She said firmly. "You've had enough Gray. You started the moment you walked in the door, and you only stopped long enough to take a beating."

"So? It ain't my fault this is a lame-ass party." Gray said loudly, leaning against the bar.

"Actually, it kind of is," Mira looked over to the right to see who was talking. She was surprised to see Lucy.

"Say that again Luce," Gray leered at her. "I dare you."

"I said it is your fault, shit head!" She all but screamed. Mira stared at her in shock. This was the first time she'd ever heard Lucy yell at someone like that.

"How is it my fault?" Gray growled, looking around the room. "That fire-brained dipshit is gone for 7 years. 7 years! And then he just waltzes in here again like nothing happened, with a fucking wife? And master's going to let him compete in the tournament when the rest of us have worked our fucking asses off all year preparing? What the fuck has he done? Run around in his imaginary world of dragons and corrupt our most innocent guild member?"

"Gray, you're drunk." Mira said quietly, hoping the ice mage would listen.

"I don't fucking think so!" She wasn't sure if Gray was responding to her or just continuing his tirade. "That fucking shithead has been back for less than a day and you guys forget how to party? We've partied without those fuckers for years! We can do it again."

"Perhaps you forgot this party was to celebrate their return, Gray," Lucy said quietly. Tears stung her eyes. "And how many of them are here now?"

"It's not my fault they all follow Natsu around like little bitches." Gray said with a glare. "Fuck, maybe he's fucking all of them. Or maybe they're all fucking Wendy. Who the fuck knows? They're all one big fucking happy family that clearly doesn't care about this guild."

"Gray… Now would be a good time to stop talking," Mira told the ice mage, louder than the last time. She didn't know how long he'd been there, but she saw Laxus in the back of the guild, lightning gathering around his fists and probably the most pissed off look she'd ever seen on his face.

"Why the fuck should I stop?" Gray asked. "You don't like the idea of sweet, innocent Wendy being corrupted like that? Well, I bet she is. I bet they don't even know who the real father is. For all we know, she could be having twins from two different fathers." He laughed at the stupid joke as Laxus' anger and magic energy began to grow.

"Gray…" Mirajane urged.

"What?" Gray said. "I can fucking say what I want to. I've earned the fucking right, unlike those assholes. Who the fuck do they think they are anyway? Especially fucking Natsu. 'Gajeel, please take Gray out of my sight.' 'Oh yes master Natsu. Just let me fuck Wendy tonight and I'll do whatever the fuck you want.' 'I'll even let you do anal if you beat—"

Gray was cut off mid-sentence by a powerful blow to the gut, which dropped him instantly to the floor. Laxus grabbed the ice mage, dragging him up by his shirt.

"Laxus," Mira said quietly, fearful that the mage was about to do something he would regret.

"I'm not going to kill him, Mira." Laxus told her. "The fucking filth isn't worth it. But I will give him a warning." He put his face inches from Gray's as the ice mage wheezed and struggled to break the lightning mage's grip. "If I ever, ever hear you make such fucking vulgar accusations against Natsu or Wendy. If you ever so much as suggest that Natsu is such a pervert that he would allow others to have sex with his mate, or that Wendy is such a pervert that she would do that, I will personally tear your tongue out from the bottom of your throat, tear your eyeballs from their sockets, and then I'll fucking castrate you and make you choke on your own cock. You got that shithead?"

Gray could only nod, as he was struggling just to get breaths in and out.

"Good." Laxus dropped him to the floor. "Now get out of my sight before I lose it."

Gray glared at the thunder mage, but hurriedly turned and rushed out the door. Laxus's anger began to recede, and the guild breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"So what brings you here, Laxus?" Mira asked quietly once Gray was gone.

"Well, never really been one to party, but there are some things I still need to collect from my room," Laxus said.

"Oh, you're not living in the guild anymore?"

"Nope." Laxus grinned. "Gajeel and I pooled the money we had saved and bought a place, with a little help from the master."

"Oh really?" Mira grinned a little demonically. "You and Gajeel moving in together eh?"

"Before you get any funny ideas," Laxus growled at her, "Gajeel has his eye on a certain girl in the guild. Who happens to still be available after 7 years. And as for me…" The blonde mage looked over at the other side of the bar, where a certain busty brunette was tipping a keg to her lips. "Let's just say I've got someone in mind too."

"Wouldn't you have been better off getting separate places then?"

"No." Laxus said bluntly. "The place we have will work just fine. But you'd better not tell anyone else about this conversation."

"My lips are sealed," Mirajane said with a smile.

Laxus sweat-dropped. "I just realized my judgment must be really bad right now…"

Mira just smiled as the thunder mage headed up to his room to collect his belongings. She wasn't going to tell anyone. Yet.

* * *

**AN**

Alright, so I hate to admit it, but I actually teared up a little during this chapter... Pathetic, I know.

Before I start getting flame reviews, yes. I know Gray is OOC. Or maybe just sexually frustrated because he's been refusing the only girl that's interested in him for 7 years. One or the other. Ok. Maybe both.

And... I think that's it for now. Read and Review as always!


	7. Chapter 7

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. That all belongs to Mashima

It has been brought to my attention that I forgot to include Panther Lily's whereabouts in the story. He was with the dragon slayers when they were fighting Acnologia. If I go back and rewrite, I'll have to make sure to include that detail.

Anyway, this chapter marks the beginning of the Grand Magic Games Arc. Thanks for reading and for the reviews.

Oh, and I believe I did say I know Gray was OOC in the last chapter. Has nothing to do with Gray bashing. I often take characters and play with the way they react to circumstances, and in the last chapter I decided Gray was going to be pissed off and drunk and make some bad decisions.**

* * *

 **~~~GMG Arc Start~~~**

"Salamander, open up already dammit!"

Natsu blinked, opening his eyes slowly. He untangled his limbs from Wendy's, kissing her cheek gently as she stretched with a cute yawn.

"SALAMANDER!"

"Alright, keep your panties on!" He yelled through the door as he threw on a pair of boxers and pants. Showering would have to wait. "There'd better be a good reason you're here."

He saw Wendy pull the covers up over her shoulders. That was her, "I'm not getting up yet and you'd better take care of this now" signal. He sighed and cracked the door open, somewhat surprised to see Gajeel and Laxus outside.

"What's so important you're outside my door this early in the morning?" He asked, not even trying to hide his irritation at being awakened.

"Early?" Gajeel guffawed. "It's almost 10, Salamander."

"Well, I guess 10 is extra early today," Natsu growled. "Now what do you want?"

"We're just here to help you move," Gajeel said.

"Why would I be moving?" Natsu asked. "Wendy and I are happy right here."

"Two reasons," Gajeel grinned. "First, that house isn't fit for you and Wendy, let alone the two babies you've got coming. Second, your new place has a room for Happy and one for Carla, so they won't leave every time you guys fuck. Which also means me and Laxus won't know every time you guys are fucking, like you were last night."

Natsu glared at Gajeel, but he realized they were both good points. "Give us 10 minutes to get ready," he said, knowing Wendy would hear. "I need to eat something before we do any moving."

"10 minutes is all you get," Gajeel said with a grin. Natsu closed the door and headed to the kitchen. Wendy groaned as she rolled out of bed.

"You could've gone a little easier last night," she said as she slipped her underwear on, a little shaky on her legs.

"I think it was more the duration than the intensity," Natsu replied with a laugh. "Or maybe a little of both. That's the longest we've fucked since…. Well, since ever I think."

Wendy blushed as they heard a choking sound outside the door. "You didn't have to say that so loud," she said.

"That's what they get for waking me up early," he replied irritably. "I didn't even get my morning snuggle time."

"Aaww, poor baby." Wendy giggled as she headed into the kitchen. She was wearing one of Natsu's favorite dresses. A black, knee-length number that really showed off her shapely hips and cleavage.

"We got enough time for a quickie?" He asked loudly, hearing Gajeel gag again outside.

"Behave yourself," Wendy smacked him lightly on the back of the head, making him drop the egg he was currently flipping prematurely into the pan.

"Meh," he said. Salvaging what he could of the egg. "This is yours now." He indicated the slightly mangled lump.

"Umm. No," Wendy said with a sweet smile. "I'm pretty sure that's yours. I don't like mine with the yoke broken."

Natsu knew it was pointless to argue. He'd tried, before, and discovered that there are ways to lose without losing in battle. He really didn't want to lose any arguments with Wendy after that. He put the egg on his plate, along with the four others he'd already made, and started making a few for Wendy.

"Aren't you gonna' shower?" he asked as he finished the cooking.

"10 minutes isn't long enough to shower," she replied with a grin. And besides, if we're moving, we'll want to shower afterward anyway."

"You're right," Natsu sighed.

"When am I not?" She replied with a smirk.

Natsu didn't argue. He just handed her a plate with eggs and a good portion of bacon before taking his own plate and joining her at the table.

"We can start moving while you stuff your face," Gajeel's voice said from outside.

"Sounds good," Natsu said through a mouthful of food. "We don't have that much to move anyway."

Gajeel and Laxus came in and headed for the dresser. "Leave the top drawer alone!" Wendy called out blushing as they started emptying drawers into a bag.

"Ge hee." Gajeel replied. Natsu laughed. The top drawer was their 'kinky drawer,' filled with all Wendy's most daring outfits, but, more embarrassing to her, a list of sex cosplay fantasies she wanted to try. She'd made the list in the other world, where they didn't even have that kind of commerce yet, and Natsu promised her they would buy the costumes and accessories for these fantasies once they went on a few quests for the guild.

The other thing that was in there was something that would be somewhat embarrassing for both of them. It was an illustrated diagram of sexual positions, drawn by Wendy (who Natsu discovered was a very good artist). Each position was labeled, and carefully marked depending on who found it the most enjoyable. Positions that neither of them had much enjoyed were marked with a big red x. However, the biggest reason that it would have been embarrassing was that Wendy had drawn all the positions using Natsu and Wendy as the models. Natsu teased her about that, saying if she'd chosen to illustrate it with imaginary people she could've sold it.

Fortunately, Gajeel and Laxus both knew better than to mess with Wendy, so their secrets were safe in the top drawer. For now.

"That's all I'm taking," Laxus announced as he headed out, a bag full of clothing and bed linens over his shoulder.

"Right behind you," Gajeel said. He had more clothes, some pillows, and random odds and ends from around the house. "Hey Laxus," Natsu heard him say as they left. "Did you touch those sheets?"

"Well, I had to touch them to get them off," Laxus replied irritably. "Why?"

"Ge he." Gajeel snickered. "From the smell, I'd say those sheets were really well used last night."

"That's fucking gross!" Natsu could imagine the lightning mage's face. "See if I help them move again."

The conversation faded into the distance, and Natsu and Wendy finished breakfast. As soon as they were done eating, Natsu packed as much as he could of their dishes, cooking ware, and silverware. Wendy went to the bathroom and packed their shower and bathroom supplies.

Then Natsu broke off the entire wall of memories. There was no way he was leaving that behind.

As they were getting ready to leave, something dawned on Natsu. "How are we supposed to find this new place?" He asked Wendy.

Wendy pointed toward his face. Natsu looked in the mirror, confused. Did he have something on his face? How was that supposed to answer his question.

"Use your nose," Wendy sighed.

Oh. That made sense. The trail was still fresh enough that he wouldn't even have to bend down to follow their scent. Sometimes Natsu wondered why he didn't think of these things.

They'd walked almost a mile, drawing stares from the townspeople with the big wall Natsu was carrying on his back, when they saw Gajeel and Laxus coming to meet them.

"Ge he," Gajeel said, looking at Laxus. "Told you Salamander's nose could track us this far."

"Hmph," Laxus snorted, looking away. "They still need to see which place is theirs."

"Right," Gajeel grinned. "Which is why we couldn't wait for them at the house."

Laxus didn't say anything. He just turned on his heel and started heading back.

"Well, come on." Gajeel said with a grin. "You can probably go a little faster if you don't have to focus so much on the nose."

Natsu and Wendy grinned and followed them through the town.

Soon they came to a large, 5 acre lot with three houses sitting on it. Gajeel and Laxus opened a gate and motioned toward the house on the right. "That one's yours," he grinned.

"Wow, that's great!" Wendy said. Natsu had to agree, silently. Even without going inside he could already tell it was tons bigger than their current house.

"Thanks guys," Natsu said. "Seriously. I thought it would take ages to save up enough to buy a new place."

"It probably would've," Gajeel smirked. "Especially since your appetite hasn't diminished much."

Natsu couldn't really deny it. He sighed. "Well, hopefully gramps will let us take S-class quests now so we can stock up and shit." He said.

"He'd better," Gajeel smirked. "I mean come on. You could take his whole S-class section yourself."

"I don't know about that," Natsu said. "If I had Erza, Mira, and Gildarts to deal with all at once, I'm pretty sure I'd lose that one."

"Yeah, you're probably right. But still…"

Natsu smirked. "Well, I'm sure we can figure out ways to make money if Gramps won't make us S-class."

"Ge he," was all Gajeel said.

Then Natsu and Wendy headed into the new house. Natsu had to go sideways in the door, since his wall of memories was still on his back. Once inside, he let everything drop rather unceremoniously to the ground.

Carla and Happy were already in the house. The exceeds had already claimed their rooms – which were on the second level, and as far from the master bedroom as they could get. There were two more rooms on the main level, as well as a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, and a bathroom.

"Wow, this really is nice," commented Natsu as he looked around. The place had hardwood floors in the main rooms, with ornate tile floors in the bathrooms. There were large windows in all the main rooms, with large, dark-red curtains that didn't let much light through if they were closed. They also had granite countertops and the most durable fireplace and cooking equipment in Fiore. Yep. This was going to be a great place to live.

 **~~~At the guild, a little after noon~~~**

Erza sighed as she leaned back. Her strawberry cake was gone, and the guild was rather quiet. She wondered if this would be a good time to go on a request.

No, master Makarov was going to make an announcement concerning the Grand Magic Games today. She needed to be around to hear that. Everyone was going to be gunning for Fairy Tail this year, after all. They'd won every GMG so far, but this year Sabertooth was sure they were going to win. After all, they had the two dragon slayers that killed real dragons.

Erza wasn't so sure. As much as she thought Sting and Rogue believed they killed actual dragons, witnessing the power of dragon slayers who she knew had killed real dragons made her doubt their claims. She wasn't even sure that the pair would've measured up to Natsu and Gajeel before their 7 years absence. She was certain they wouldn't come close now.

But either way, it wasn't just Sabertooth gunning for them. Every guild knew Fairy Tail was the guild to beat. In fact, some had even requested that they not be allowed to participate this year, especially with two wizard saints on the team. The only other guild with a wizard saint was Lamia, and Jura was ranked 6th, right behind Mirajane.

Of course, that wasn't even counting four of the most powerful mages on the continent – if not in all earthland.

Just then the doors were kicked open with a resounding bang, and the four dragon slayers came in, accompanied by their three exceeds.

"Still have to make a dramatic entrance, huh Natsu?" Erza said with a small smile. Despite the 7 years of war he'd been through, the pink-haired dragon slayer was still the same person deep down. There was some comfort in that, at least.

"Alright!"Natsu yelled. "We didn't get to party yesterday, so we're gonna have a real kick-ass party today! Hope you're all ready!"

Erza watched Wendy, who usually stayed close to her mate, retreat to a remote corner of the guild as the dragon slayers were charged by Elfman, Gray, Freed, Bickslow, and several others. Soon the brawl was in full swing. Chairs and tables were flying and breaking everywhere.

Suddenly a piece of wood smacked Erza's face, knocking her off her bar stool to the floor. She got up, her features darkening into a glare. "CRETINS!" She yelled. "It's time to mete out some discipline!"

Gray, Elfman, and Freed instantly froze. The rest, including Laxus, who usually didn't even get involved in the brawls, kept going as though she weren't even there.

Ok. That was the last straw. It was time to teach these brats some manners, again. With a determined glare she marched into the fray.

"NATSU!" She yelled. The pink-haired dragon slayer started, then grinned at her. "What's up Erza? Gonna' join the party?"

Shit. Apparently 7 years was long enough to train his conditioned fear response out of him. Well, this would have to go the hard way then. Mustering all her strength and will, she jumped into the brawl, getting as many hits in on the dragon slayers as she could.

"ENOUGH!" A towering giant with glowing eyes appeared in the room, emitting a dark, angry aura. Mages scattered as the giant's foot came down, ready to crush the brawlers under it. Only Natsu remained where he was. "Ha ha! You guys all chickened out. That means I win!"

"I said enough!" The giant bellowed, his foot coming down. To everyone's surprise, Natsu caught the foot on one arm, but otherwise didn't move.

"Sorry gramps," he said. "We're done now." He moved to a table as Makarov shrunk down to his normal size.

"Alright everyone," Makarov said now that he was his usual short self again. "I have an announcement to make concerning the Grand Magic Games. There's been some discussion, and I think the best thing to do is for you all to go train and prepare yourself for the games. I'll announce the team when I get back."

"Aawww," everyone groaned. Erza was as surprised as anyone else. Surely the master knew who the strongest mages in the guild were. There was no need for some asinine training period.

"Well, that sucks." Gray said from his table. His clothes were already gone. "I was really looking forward to getting called."

"Called for what, popsicle?" Natsu taunted. "Do they have a stripping contest at the magic games?"

Gray glared at the fire dragon slayer, and moments later the two were butting heads again, like nothing ever happened. Erza was surprised, but she supposed Natsu was never the kind to hold grudges.

Erza sighed. She didn't really need to train outside of her normal training regimen, so she could just enjoy the time doing something fun for a change, or maybe go on a job request. Then again, requests were scarce with the games so close. Especially good ones. Nobody wanted the strong mages to get injured before the games.

"Hey Mira," she called. During the 7 years the dragon slayers were gone, the two had become best friends. "Why don't we take some time off at a resort."

Mira smiled. "That would be fun," she said. "We'll leave the training to the people who really need it." She looked at Lucy and Gray as she spoke.

"Yeah, that's right!" Gray said, apparently noticing her comment. "I don't have time to waste fighting you flame brain. I've gotta train to be sure I make the team! Let's go Lucy, Elfman!"

"Juvia will come too!" Juvia said, hurrying after them as they departed.

"Don't think you're going anywhere without me," Evergreen said, hurrying after them with Jaina in tow.

Natsu whispered something to Gajeel, who turned a little red and snapped at him. Erza watched, interested now, as Natsu replied with a smirk and a wink.

For a few moments nothing further happened. Then, slowly, the iron dragon slayer made his way over to the table where Levy was sitting with team shadow gear.

"Oy Levy," he said gruffly. "If you want to get your ass ready for the games, stick with me. I'll show you how it's done."

"Ok," Levy said with a shy smile, and Erza almost laughed out loud. It was a good thing for Gajeel that Levy didn't require the romantic touch.

Of course, it wasn't like Laxus was much better. He was next to Cana at the bar. "You're coming with us. You know that right."

"Uh, sure?" Cana raised an eyebrow at him.

Erza just smiled at the duo. The fact that she was still single all these years later was a testament to the fact that Cana actually harbored feelings for the lightning dragon slayer. This would be an interesting three months, she thought with a smile.

She decided it was time to join Natsu, who now sat with Wendy at a table not far from the bar. She headed over to the table and sat down with a smile.

"So what are you going to do for training, Natsu?" She asked.

Natsu raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm not planning on anything more than my normal routine," he said. "What about you?"

"Same." She shrugged. "There's not really much point. No one there would really provide competition for me anyway."

Natsu laughed. "Not even these true dragon slayers I keep hearing about from Sabertooth?"

Erza sighed. "Natsu, I've seen them fight. And, to be honest, I don't actually believe that they have the power to kill a real dragon."

"Well, guess I'll just have to find out at the tournament," Natsu said.

"Assuming master puts you on the team, of course," Erza smirked.

Natsu shrugged. "Whether he does or not, I should be able to gauge their magic power well enough from watching them fight."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Erza said.

Just then Mira popped in at the table. "Hey Natsu, Wendy. What are you guys doing for training?"

Natsu lifted an eyebrow. "Wendy's not training," he said. "She won't be participating in the games. I'm just doing my normal routine. No point in any hard training for something like this."

"Great," Mira grinned. "Why don't you come to the resort with us?"

"Resort?" Natsu looked at Erza, raising an eyebrow quizzically.

Erza rolled her eyes at the take over mage. "Mira and I were talking about going to a resort near Crocus to relax a bit before the games. But the games are still 3 months away. I doubt any of us want to spend 3 months at the resort."

"Nah, but a month would be fun," Mira grinned. "Long enough to enjoy all the amenities, but short enough that it doesn't get old."

"I think we'd be glad to join," Natsu said. "I'm pretty sure Laxus and Gajeel would be happy to cut their training time a little short for something like that, and I'm also pretty sure neither Cana nor Levy will be on the team."

"You're probably right about that," Erza sweat-dropped. "Though Levy probably could be, if she wanted to. She's not really into fighting much."

"I guess that never changed," Natsu said with his trademark grin.

They talked for a little while longer about nothing in particular, and then they split off to go their separate ways. Erza headed out to Fairy Hills. She could've bought a house in town by this time, but who really needed one? Fairy Hills had great amenities, and she didn't have to worry about anything but her own little room.

As she headed to bed later that night, Titania couldn't help but wish that something exciting would happen at the games. A large part of her missed the years of battling enemies that tested her strength, of coming within inches of death and having to depend on her guild mates to pull through. She thought the desire for that kind of fighting was done with, but it seemed that Natsu's sudden reappearance had awakened that urge in her again.

And she wouldn't have it any other way.


	8. Chapter 8

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. They all belong to Mashima.

Just a couple notes from reviews:

 **DdraigTrueEmperor9** : Who said Laxus and Gajeel aren't still mad? You don't see them interacting with Gray for a reason. But Natsu is the alpha, which makes a difference for behavior.

Wendy looks comparable to Edo-Wendy at this point.

 **SilentSniper05** : I really haven't decided what's going to happen with Erza and Mirajane yet. At this point they're just two former rivals who made up their differences and are best friends now.

 **BlackDragonShinigami** : Sorry, but I don't really do power level gauges. For one, I kind of like the mystery it creates when power levels aren't specifically ranked. For another, I find it to be a Fairy Tail rule that power levels can fluctuate based on the necessity of the situation at hand.

Essentially, I have 3 power level gauges for characters: weaker than, fairly equivalent, and out of their league.

Anyway, on to the story.**

* * *

"Man, this training is boring." Lucy sat down on a large boulder that was a little way from the shore. She'd been hoping for something fun, but so far all she'd done was practice emptying her magic container to make it larger.

"Deal with it. You want to prove we're strong enough to be in the games, right?"

Lucy sighed. As much fun as the games were, unlike Gray she didn't have some desperate need to prove they were somehow stronger than the dragon slayers who were able to beat a wizard saint. She was happy being an S-class mage of Fairy Tail.

"Sure I want to compete in the games, Gray, but even if Master does let the dragon slayers compete, that leaves room for two more."

"Yeah. Erza and Mirajane obviously," Gray replied. "Don't see where that leaves any hope for us."

"Juvia is sure her Gray-sama will make the team!" Juvia chirped.

"Thanks for the support, I guess." Gray said.

Just then Virgo appeared on the beach. "Lucy," she said, her manner very serious. "The celestial spirit world is in grave danger. The celestial spirit king requests that you and your friends come immediately."

"I thought humans can't go to the celestial spirit world," Lucy said.

"I have special clothing for each of you that will allow you to travel to the celestial spirit world with me," the maid explained, giving each an outfit that was somehow tailored to their size.

Moments later Gray, Lucy, Juvia,, Elfman, and Evergreen were standing at the entrance to the celestial spirit world. The king appeared before them, his enormous face grave as he looked upon the earthland wizards.

"Old friends…" The words came out like a 5 ton weight was dragging them down, laden with worry. "Thank you for coming."

"And now." Suddenly the king's bearing and demeanor morphed. The slight slouch was gone from his shoulders as quickly as the grave frown fled from his face. "LET'S PARTY!"

After they got over their initial shock, the friends grinned and dug into the feast set before them. Aquarius and Juvia had great bonding moments, and Leo continually hit on Lucy. Lucy could tell Gray wasn't happy about the situation at first, but when she asked him about it he just said they deserved the break and could get back to training tomorrow.

 **~~~Magnolia Forest~~~**

"Come on shrimp, ya call that a push-up?" Gajeel jeered.

Levy wiped her brow. Apparently, even though she wasn't even all that interested in competing in the games, Gajeel took his promise to train her very seriously. She desperately wanted a more relaxing time with the dragon slayer who'd asked, no, demanded, that she come train with him. But now it seemed she'd only realize that desire if she worked her ass off becoming stronger first.

It sucked, but if it would make Gajeel like her more it was more than worth it.

She bent her arms again, letting her petite breasts almost touch the ground before straining against gravity again. Her arms shook as she struggled to get back into the up position. But it was a losing battle. She collapsed to the ground as her arms refused to give her anymore.

"Hmm… 50," Gajeel sighed. "Better than 2, shrimp, but we've been out here for two weeks already."

Levy just groaned. In her defense, the second of the 2 push-ups she'd done on their first day of training couldn't really be called a push-up. More of a struggle-off-the-ground-up. Besides, she could do 25 times as many push-ups as when they first started. That seemed like a great improvement to her.

"Come on shrimp," Gajeel held out his hand, which she grabbed, allowing him to help her to her feet. "Time to work on that endurance."

And they were off, running. Gajeel set a grueling pace, but Levy kept up pretty well. She always loved running, so despite her size she actually kept up really good physical shape for long distance especially.

Unfortunately, it seemed dragon slayers possessed inhuman endurance. Even after a full hour of running he showed no sign of slowing anytime soon. Levy's legs burned from the pace. Even though she could only keep this pace for around 45 minutes prior to beginning her training, she still felt weak when she watched Gajeel, who seemed to hardly notice it.

Levy kept going for as far as she could, but now she hit her limit. Her strides slowed as her legs demanded that she give them a break. She fought the urge to collapse, slowing to a steady walk instead to allow her heart rate to go down naturally. Ahead of her Gajeel turned back.

"Done already, shrimp?" he said with a smirk.

Sometimes she really hated the dragon slayer. Sure, she knew that his hard-ass attitude and teasing actually showed that he cared about her, but she wished he could figure out that girls preferred to receive affection in other ways. Would he always be like this?

 _Well, you're the idiot that fell in love with him,_ a little voice whispered in her head. She told it to shut up. She knew that better than anyone after all. What she still couldn't figure out was why.

 _Maybe it's a case of Stockholm Syndrome…_

No, that wasn't it. He'd never imprisoned her against her will. Beaten her and strung her up in her guild, sure. But never held her hostage.

 _So maybe you're a masochist at heart._

Alright. It was time for this voice to fuck off. Gajeel had a lot going for him. He was strong. He was loyal to his friends now.

 _He's an absolute prick to you. His songs suck, but he insists on torturing people's ears anyway. He can't stop fighting with Natsu._

No, he wasn't always an absolute prick. He took her out here to help her get stronger. That had to count for something right? He just had trouble relating to people. Maybe eating metal had something to do with it.

"Yo shrimp. We gotta' get started on magic training or we'll never be done for the day." His voice jarred her from her thoughts, reminding her the grueling day wasn't over yet.

"Alright, I'm coming." She groaned as she got to her feet, testing her legs to be sure they were stable enough to walk on before following him to their magic training area.

 **~~~A desert area, not far from Magnolia~~~**

"So what's it gonna' be, big boy? You're in charge of my training, so let's get to it."

Laxus grunted in annoyance. He was laying back against a particularly comfortable dune, and didn't feel much like dealing with Cana right now. Sure, he liked her, but that didn't mean she could just push him around. "You're the one doing the training. Why don't you figure it out?"

"Excuse me? You're the one who called me out here to train with you. So take responsibility and tell me what I should be doing!"

Laxus growled, slipping his spiky headphones over his ears again. He'd really missed those things in the other world after they'd been destroyed in battle. He grinned as one of his favorite songs came on, the loud rock beat completely drowning out anything Cana was trying to say to him at the moment. He relaxed with the beat, grinning and looking at Cana's great boobs as her mouth moved and her face got more and more red. He allowed his eyes to fully close, mentally saving the image of hot, angry Cana to fantasize about later.

"GET OFF YOUR FUCKING LAZY ASS AND TRAIN WITH ME!" Laxus started awake. Cana had pushed one side of his headphones back and now had her face inches from his ear. He could guess her face was still flushed with anger, but he couldn't see at the moment. Because the only thing he could see was the amazing view of her cleavage that he had as she bent over him, screaming in his ear.

"You know," he said in a quiet voice that he hoped was both teasing and sexy, "I could go for some endurance training right about now." He reached up and squeezed her boob suggestively.

He instantly regretted his decision as he was literally dragged to his feet by his ear. Cana was in his face, and despite being several times more powerful than her he realized that he was terrified for some reason. She stared into his eyes with large, angry orbs.

"Get off your fucking lazy ass and train with me right now or I can promise you you're never getting that fucking endurance training you want. Even if you're the last fucking man in the world."

She couldn't really mean that, could she? Laxus grinned, putting on a false bravado against the threat. "That's alright. I'll just get endurance training elsewhere."

Pain shot through his ear as she twisted it further, her eyes boring holes in his. "You might want to rethink that answer, because I'm dead serious right now. If you can't get off your fucking lazy ass and help me get stronger you can kiss my ass goodbye. Permanently."

Laxus thought about calling her bluff. He almost did. But the problem was that he didn't know for sure that it was a bluff. What if she wasn't bluffing? What if she was actually prepared to make good on her threat? He felt perspiration forming on his forehead.

"Alright," he finally sighed. "Let's get started then." He regained his smirk. Fine. If she wanted him to train her, he'd make sure her training was hell. He'd make it so bad she'd never ask him to train her again. Then he could just relax and do the kind of things he really wanted to do with her. Like make lots and lots of babies.

As long as she took care of them of course. There was no way he could be bothered to actively care for a bunch of snot-nosed brats. He could do the fun things with them, like a little wrestling and sparring, going out for ice cream, and teaching them about music. But she'd better not expect him to be changing any diapers or wiping snot from their noses.

That was in the future, though. First he had to get around to making the babies.

So for now, he would train.

 **~~~Terravo Resort, a few miles outside Crocus~~~**

"So who do you think Master will put on the team?" Mirajane asked Erza. In less than a month Makarov would announce his final decision for the teams, but for now they relaxed by the wave pool at the resort.

"Isn't it obvious?" Erza replied. "obviously he'll take the 3 dragon slayers, me, and either you or Gildarts."

"Are you sure?" Mirajane said. "I don't think Master would find the games fun if there was no challenge involved."

"I think he wants to win," Erza said matter-of-factly. "And you know the other guilds will put their aces in. Jura will be sure to be there. And the council only has him ranked below you as a Wizard Saint because he hasn't proven himself fully yet."

"Yeah, but Jura's one person. I'm sure Master Makarov would feel confident having just one of the dragon slayers on the team," Mira said with her trademark smile. "And he won't want Gray and Lucy to feel left out."

"Speaking of Gray and Lucy, do you know what happened to them?" Erza asked. "I was keeping tabs on them, but nobody seems to have seen them for at least a month."

Mira shrugged. "I haven't heard anything either, but they were training. Do you really think it's a big deal?"

Erza frowned. "You know as well as anyone, Mira, that with the number of dark guilds we took down while the dragon slayers were away someone's gonna' want revenge."

"Oh relax, Erza. They're S-Class mages. They can handle themselves."

Erza sighed. "Nobody's even seen them for almost 2 months Mira. I fail to see how you don't see the problem here."

Mira shrugged. "We didn't see Natsu, Gajeel, Wendy, or Laxus for 7 years, and they showed up again."

"And they were fighting dragons in some other world!" Erza said, suddenly sounding a bit panicked. "There's not a dragon slayer among the group!"

Mira sighed. She never could figure Erza out. Stern and impassable one minute, obsessed about something utterly ridiculous the next. Why couldn't they just enjoy their time off?

Just then an enormous splash jetted out of the pool, completely soaking both girls, who had just finished drying off in the sun. Mira watched as Erza's eyes immediately turned rigid, looking for the source of her discomfort.

A pink-haired dragon slayer was in the middle of the pool, looking at them with a cheeky smile. Security guards were peering at him from all around the pool.

"Natsu, now I can't even try the waterslide…" Mira looked up to see Wendy looking over a railing that had to be at least 80 feet above the pool. She then glanced over to see Erza, also looking up and apparently putting the pieces together. She glared at the dragon slayer, who just continued with his cheeky grin.

"Best Cannonball Ever!" He yelled.

Mira looked over at Erza again, wondering why she wasn't chasing the dragon slayer down yet. She saw her digging through a soaking backpack. Her eyes widened with fury as she pulled out a dripping copy of Knight's Heavenly Screams, a niche-market perverted novel about a bodacious sword wielder who liked to get punished at night by her domineering partner.

"NAAATSUUUU!" Erza screamed. Mira giggled as other people started staring at her. Some of the guys nearby caught sight of the book she was holding and started getting perverted grins.

"Umm, Erza," Mira said, grabbing her friend's arm to get her attention. "You might want to put that out of sight…"

Erza just stared at her, a half angry, half confused look on her face for a moment. Mira jerked her head to the left and right, sweeping her eyes briefly to the people around them. Erza followed her eyes. Then her face turned an even darker shade of red as she dropped the ruined book back into her bag.

"I'm gonna' kill you Natsu!" She yelled as she charged the dragon slayer, who was now out of the pool and sprinting across the resort. Mira saw security guards on his heels and sighed. This marked the end of their "month-long" resort stay, and they'd only been there a little over a week.

A few minutes later Wendy joined her by the pool as she was packing up. "You know you and Erza could stay here," the sky dragon slayer said with a smile. "You don't have to leave because of Natsu,"

"No," Mira said, returning her smile. "But it wouldn't be much fun to be here by myself."

"By yourself?" Wendy looked up to see security guards escorting both Natsu and Erza, who were both looking a bit bruised up, away from a freshly-ruined Ferris Wheel ride. She giggled. "I see your point." Natsu wore a very unrepentant grin, while Erza looked about ready to murder the pink-haired dragon slayer.

Mira sighed. "Hopefully they'll at least let us go back to our rooms to retrieve our belongings," she said.

"I'm sure they will, if they don't already have them waiting outside the gate," Wendy laughed.

A small smile crept across Mira's face. "You know, it's been more than 7 years since something like this has happened to us." She reflected, looking up at the perfectly blue sky. "But it's more fun this way."

Wendy smiled, her own eyes focused on the dragon slayer who was now being pushed through the front gates. "Yes. He wouldn't be Natsu if he changed too much, would he?"

"Definitely not," Mira agreed. She then sighed and got up. "Shall we go join them?"

Wendy nodded, and the two headed off toward the front gate and their now officially evicted comrades.

 **~~~Magnolia, 1 week before the Grand Magic Games~~~**

"Shit, we're gonna' miss the announcement!" Gray yelled as he dashed off the train. Lucy, Juvia, Elfman, and Evergreen followed close on his heels.

"We can't run all the way to the guild," Lucy said as they chased him. "Besides, they'll probably wait for us to get there before they announce the team."

"This is all your fault Lucy," Gray yelled as he continued sprinting toward the guild. "So suck it up and keep up."

"How is it my fault?" Lucy yelled back. "I didn't know that a day in the celestial spirit world was 2 months here!"

"Well you should've!" Gray yelled back. "Now we wasted almost our whole training time thanks to your fucking spirits!"

"Complaining isn't a man!" Elfman roared from behind her. "We'll make it to the guild in time for the announcement, so just keep moving."

"I already know that," Gray yelled back.

Lucy sighed. She couldn't deny that she was a little pissed about the incident. But Gray's attitude was over the top. It wasn't like it would be the end of the world if they missed hearing that they wouldn't be participating in the games this year. But there was no dissuading Gray, who was determined to be a part of the team.

10 minutes later the group burst through the guild doors, panting and sweaty. Every eye in the very full guild turned toward them. Lucy heard snickers from various tables and thought how ridiculous they must look. Then she realized that most of the snickering was directed at Gray, who wore only a pair of boxers.

"Gray, your clothes!" she hissed.

"Shit! When did this happen?" Gray looked frantically around.

"Juvia picked Gray-Sama's clothes when she saw them on the street!" Juvia said with a big smile, presenting Gray with his clothes.

"Oh. Thanks," Gray said, embarrassed.

"Well," Makarov said loudly from the front. "Now that we're all here, I decided it's time to announce the team members for this year."

"After much consideration, I decided that we should offer positions based on the amount of effort put into preparing as well as the level of power present. It was, as some pointed out, not fair to put everyone who just got back on a team just because they're powerful now. So, in recognition of the intense training that had been done over the last 3 months, I would like to announce this year's team for the Grand Magic Games."

"Gray Fullbuster."

Gray's eyes went wide and he cheered loudly, smirking at Natsu. "Told you I'd make it, flame brain."

Natsu shrugged and winked at him. "Congrats, stripper."

"Lucy Heartfilia."

Lucy was shocked to hear her name. Why would the master choose her of all people? But she supposed she deserved it as much as Gray, although they hadn't exactly been training for the last 3 months.

"Juvia Lockster."

Juvia squealed. "Juvia will fight next to her Gray-sama!"

"Cana Alberona."

Cana looked up from the table she was sharing with Laxus, surprised. "Me?"

"And finally, because we have to have a trump card somewhere, Mirajane Strauss!"

Mira grinned and raised her hands in the air, a demonic smile on her face. "Fairy Tail will definitely Triumph!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy saw Gajeel half-glaring at the old man. She quickly looked around to check the other dragon slayers. Laxus seemed a little surprised, but not much affected by the news that he wasn't on the team. Similarly, Natsu seemed surprisingly unaffected. The one who seemed the most surprised, other than Gajeel, was actually Erza. The redhead was staring at the master, her mouth working as though she wanted to say something but didn't dare.

Apparently Makarov noticed too, because he sighed and called out. "Erza, come to my office. I want to talk to you."

And the two disappeared into the master's office.

The other girls in the guild swarmed Lucy, congratulating her on representing Fairy Tail this year in the games. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Gray go to rub it in Natsu's face, only to be taken out in a single punch. She smiled. At least the ice mage had been smart enough not to approach Gajeel or Laxus. She couldn't help noticing that both their auras turned nasty when he was near them.

She sighed. It was going to be a long couple weeks.


	9. Chapter 9

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. Those all belong to Mashima.

Before I get to the story, just a couple of notes from reviews:

 **Yuri** : I never said I hated Lucy. I hate the NaLu ship (almost as much as the Jerza ship). One thing that I really hate about the Lucy fans is their perpetual drive to throw the entire guild OOC, especially Natsu, and honestly even Lucy. I will sometimes pull one character OOC for the sake of plot, but that doesn't mean I hate them. In this timeline Lucy's had 7 years by the time x791 rolls around to train, so considering her showing at the GMG in canon I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that she could become an S-class mage in 7 years.

 **KingZthe1st:** Sorry, but Gruvia is one of the few canon pairings I don't like to break up (along with GaLe and Alzack/Bisca). Juvia's obsessive enough imo that nothing will deter her from her devotion to Gray.

The GMG arc will follow canon to some extent, but there will be some changes. I plan to have a little more of the exceeds in this arc as well. Also, **this will be a LEMON chapter.**

Anyway, here's chapter 9. Thanks for all the great reviews – a lot of them make me think more about what I'm writing and how I'm writing the characters. Hopefully this is improving my stories. Read and review as always!**

* * *

Wendy Dragneel blushed as passersby stopped to stare. She'd never been one to enjoy attention, and that hadn't changed a bit despite the confidence she'd built up over the past 7 years. Even though she secretly enjoyed the experience, the gawking of the people they passed in the street was really starting to get to her.

"Natsu," she whispered as she nuzzled her face into her lover's neck, "I can still walk on my own, you know. You don't have to carry me all the way to the hotel."

"But I want to," Natsu replied with a grin. "And besides, you like it." She felt one hand squeeze her ass gently and masked a squeal against his neck. With a mischievous smirk that she felt rather than saw, he leaned in to lick her earlobe slowly, sending shivers through her spine as his hot tongue traced her ear.

"Jerk," she muttered into his ear. Being six months pregnant couldn't prevent her from being horny, and after a long train ride of feeling his hot head against her nether regions while he slept, she was burning for some privacy and a room of their own. With his enhanced senses he had to know this. But he wasn't getting away with this. She would just have to pay him back for teasing her as soon as they were alone.

"I don't see why Natsu and Wendy got their own room when the rest of us have to sleep in groups of 4," grumbled Gray, a little way ahead of them.

"Probably because if they didn't have their own room we'd all wish they did," Erza said to the disgruntled ice mage.

"What? They're gonna' fuck when she's practically a whale?" The ice mage's voice was grating on her nerves. "That's just gross."

The sound of metal hitting thick skull resounded through the streets of Crocus.

Wendy frowned, nuzzling against Natsu. She wondered why Gray couldn't just accept that they'd grown much stronger in their 7 years away and leave it alone. The others were already over the return, but the ice mage refused to give it up. She wished he would stop talking… His voice was reminding her of that first day back at the guild when they'd officially announced the twins.

Her grip tightened against Natsu as fear began to build in the pit of her stomach again. Could they really be sure that nothing was going to happen to these children? Finding Igneel dead at the hands of the villagers had nearly destroyed her. She couldn't imagine losing another child. "Daisuke and Grandeeney, you're never leaving my sight…" she whispered.

She felt Natsu's arms tighten as his muscles tensed, and knew that he heard her. His mood darkened tangibly. She looked up to see his eyes locked on the back of Gray's head in a glare. She felt a little bad for bringing these feelings back to the surface. Natsu didn't like holding things against people, especially people in his guild. But he always told her that her pain was his pain, and she saw even now how true that was for him.

"We'll protect them Wendy," Natsu whispered in tones that only she could hear. "And Fairy Tail will help us. Don't forget we're among friends."

Wendy felt a faint smile come to her face as she rested her head on his shoulder, her earlier energy gone. Natsu was right. Their children would always be safe because they had the best guardians in the world. And she would never, ever, let them out of her sight. Not even among people she knew and trusted. Only Natsu, Gajeel, and Laxus were in her trusted circle right now. And Gray was almost as far outside it as her enemies.

"Wendy," she looked up in surprise as Carla landed on Natsu's shoulder, right by her face. "Are you alright?"

Wendy just nodded. "I'm ok Carla. Sometimes hearing Gray talk brings back bad memories… That's all."

Carla nodded. "That's good." She was about to take off again when Wendy noticed something a little off about the exceed.

"Carla, what about you?" she asked quietly. "Are you alright?"

Carla averted her gaze and crossed her arms. "Of course I'm alright Wendy, why wouldn't I be?"

Wendy's eyes narrowed, her drowsiness forsaking her in an instant. "Carla, I've known you long enough to know when something's troubling you. Now spill."

Carla shook her head. "This is a bad time…" she said, looking around pointedly.

Wendy looked around at all the guild members. "They won't hear," she said. "You can just speak really quietly. You know I have dragon's hearing."

Carla rolled her eyes. "It's not about that," she said quietly. "Look, just trust me when I say this isn't something you want to hear when everyone's around." With that she took off, flying over to join Happy, who was currently bugging Lisanna.

Wendy scrunched her face in a frown as she considered the implications of the exceed's comment. Apparently, whatever premonition Carla had related to Wendy somehow, or someone close to her, and it was big. She trusted Carla's judgment enough to believe she was better off waiting to hear, but that didn't make it easy. She tightened her fingers against Natsu, praying it wasn't the babies.

"It's ok," Natsu whispered to her, though she could feel the tension in his body as well. "Whatever happens, we'll take care of the babies together. There's nothing to worry about…"

Wendy prayed that he was right. She knew all too well that Carla's premonitions were nothing to laugh at. If something was coming, that something was powerful or unexpected enough to overcome the combined strength of the dragon slayers. And she doubted that even Acnologia possessed that kind of power now.

Apparently Natsu sensed her worry because he leaned down and whispered to her, his hot breath sending shivers through her body as it brushed against her ear. "We should be at the hotel soon, and then I can help you take your mind off all this…" She blushed against him, suppressing a squeal at the sensation of his warm hand squeezing her shapely ass again.

That's right. She still needed to get revenge for all those torturous hours on the train. And she was going to make him pay for teasing her on the way to the hotel too.

As she listened to the banter of the other guild members, Wendy let go of the fear of what might happen and focused on what she knew was going to happen as soon as she was alone with Natsu.

 **~~~LEMON SCENE START~~~**

"Here's your room sir, ma'am."

Natsu grinned as he carried Wendy into the room, laying her on the king-sized bed that occupied the right wall at the middle. He then turned to head back to the rest. "I'll get our bags," he said with a wave.

He was surprised when a hand caught him and pulled him back to the bed. "You're not going anywhere yet," Wendy whispered, a lustful smirk on her beautiful face.

"But, our bags…" Natsu already knew this was a lost cause. When Wendy got like this, there was only one thing to do. Not that he was complaining.

"Our bags aren't going anywhere," Wendy said, pulling him down till his lips were only inches from hers. "And neither are you." She then captured his lips in a kiss before he could object again.

"Mmm…" Natsu sighed and relaxed into her. Since this was going to happen now, he might as well enjoy himself. He crawled up onto the bed beside her, beginning to explore her body with his hands.

Wendy responded, her hands exploring his muscled, toned chest and abs, moving around to his back, and then down along his legs. Then her hands moved again as he pulled her shirt up and over her head, moving to quickly unclasp her bra as well.

"Hmm… Now you're overdressed," she said as he pulled back to admire her gorgeous breasts. Before he could start to mold and squeeze them in his fingers, she pulled his shirt up and over his head, capturing his arms and forcing him to let her slip it – as well as his vest – off.

He pushed her back to the bed, slowly massaging her breasts with his hands, kneading the large, beautiful lumps of flesh. He felt his member becoming erect as she breathed out a moan against his ear. He waited a few more moments before leaning in to capture one of her hard nipples in mouth, nibbling gently on it while one hand continued to knead her breast, the other moving down to pull her yoga pants off.

As soon as her pants were on the floor, her strong arms gripped him and, taking him by surprise, flipped him onto his back. Natsu felt himself shudder as she trailed her lips in a line of gentle kisses down his chest to his abs. She then unbuckled his pants, pulling both his pants and underwear down in a quick, feral motion.

Natsu shivered in anticipation as she licked his shaft, starting at the bottom and tracing it all the way up to the head. She then gripped his member, stroking it slowly till his half-erection became a full erection.

He leaned forward and ran his fingers through her hair as she licked the head once more, a groan escaping his lips. Then she slowly slipped away from his shaft and began kissing and massaging his balls, taking each one slowly in her mouth and caressing it with her fingers.

Natsu moaned again at the pleasurable sensation, his eyes half closing while he enjoyed her ministrations. But then he felt her warm lips suddenly leave his balls, moving back up to his stomach. She continued to kiss slowly up to his chest again, her enlarged, warm belly grazing against his erection with the motion.

Natsu groaned again as she reached his lips, giving him a long, passionate kiss. She moaned softly back into his mouth as he tried to take control, beginning to knead her breasts in his hands. She grabbed his hands and pulled them back, sliding slowly back down to take his length in her mouth.

Natsu was always amazed at how she managed to get so much of his large member in her tiny mouth. More than half the length disappeared into her oral cavity before he felt himself bottom out in her throat. Her gorgeous brown eyes stared up into his as she grasped the little that remained of his shaft, beginning to bob her head up and down.

He reached down to run his fingers through her silky blue hair, his breath beginning to come faster as his mate pleasured him. Her lips formed a tight suction around his erection, and the feeling of his tip hitting her throat sent a rush of pleasure through him at every stroke. He groaned louder, closing his eyes and letting himself fall into the bliss that was approaching. It wouldn't be long before he reached his limit.

Suddenly it stopped. There was a rush of cool air on his engorged member, and the scent of Wendy's arousal was suddenly strong. He opened his eyes to see her pussy shoved in his face, feeling the warmth of her breasts against his stomach. Yet she made no move to take his member back in her mouth.

"Wendy…" He moaned out petulantly, thrusting his hips toward her in an effort to feel her amazing lips on him again.

"You don't cum till after I do," she told him sweetly, pulling her head back from his erection. "This is your punishment."

"Punishment for what?" Natsu groaned before slowly kissing her inner thighs.

"For making me feel your hot breath on my pussy the entire train ride," she said, shivering as his lips caressed her inner thighs. "And for teasing me on the way from the station to the hotel room."

"I couldn't even help the first part," Natsu complained before shoving her white panties aside and diving into her pussy with his tongue. If she weren't six months pregnant he might've flipped the situation on her, but for now she was going to get her way.

Wendy moaned softly as his tongue began to caress her inner walls. Natsu shivered with pleasure, both from the sound and from the sweet taste of his mate's nectar on his tongue. She was already extremely wet, and he knew at this rate she wouldn't last very long before her orgasm. He grabbed her firm, nicely curved ass with both hands, slipping one down to rub around the outer rim of her asshole.

"Natsu…" Wendy moaned, and he felt her beginning to heat up against him. Her breathing became heavier as his tongue continued to explore her inner walls, massaging the inside of her vagina as deep as he could go.

With a grin, the dragon slayer allowed his tongue to heat up just a little bit, grabbing Wendy's hips and using them to thrust even further into her pussy. The girl began to grind her hips against his face, moaning louder. "Natsu!"

He resumed fingering the outside of her asshole with one finger, while he pulled the other around to massage her clit slowly, dipping it in her juices to make sure it was wet enough. She moaned and writhed above him. He heard her heart rate increasing as her moans became louder and more desperate.

He ignited the tip of his tongue, not with flames that would burn, but with a gentle fire that would ignite her pleasure. She was beyond coherency now, able only to scream out his name as his heat invaded her fully. He smiled against her groin, moving to slip a finger into her ass and beginning to work it in and out.

"NATSU!" After only a few strokes she was done, her body convulsing against him as she came hard on his face. He lapped up her sweet juices eagerly, loving the slightly muskier taste she seemed to have when she was pregnant.

After a few moments her body became still as she lay on top of him, gasping for breath. Natsu quickly cleaned the rest of her love juices from her dripping pussy before turning her slowly back around. There's no way she was getting control back now. He grabbed her head and, with a feral grunt, pushed his erection into her open mouth.

Wendy grunted in surprise, but adjusted herself to a more comfortable position, grabbing the bottom of his shaft with both hands compliantly. Natsu grabbed the back of her head with both hands and started thrusting, groaning softly at the feeling of her lips creating just the perfect tightness around his erection.

Wendy, seeming to realize that he wasn't letting go of her head, let go of his shaft and began using her hands to massage his balls softly. Natsu groaned again, feeling his tip hitting the back of her throat with each thrust. He continued to hold her head in palce with one hand as he thrust into her open mouth. With the other hand he caressed her cheek and played with her silky blue hair.

"Oh fuck that's good," he breathed out as he started moving faster, drawing a surprised and muffled grunt from Wendy. He could feel his body building toward climax again. Sweat beads formed on his forehead, glistening in the magic lighting of the hotel room. He could feel his hair becoming damp and even messier than usual.

Wendy made another adjustment, and suddenly he found his dick plunging even deeper into the sky dragon slayer's throat. He let out a moan at the sudden feeling as his shaft was buried almost to the hilt in her mouth. It was almost as good as fucking her amazing pussy. Almost. But what mattered right now was just that it was good enough.

"Wendy," he grunted as he pumped her as fast as he dared, wanting to make sure she could still breathe alright. "I'm so close Wendy."

Suddenly his labored breathing hitched, and he felt his body stiffen as his member swelled inside her mouth. "WENDY!" he roared out as he pumped her mouth full of semen. She gagged slightly at the sudden onslaught, some spilling from her mouth and down her beautiful chin. She took several moments to clean around her mouth before sliding slowly back up next to him in the bed.

She laid their for a moment before whispering in his ear. "Round 2?"

 **~~~Lemon end~~~**

When Natsu went down to get their bags several minutes later, he was very thankful for the rune barriers that blocked sound from escaping the couples suites in the hotel. Other members were looking at him suspiciously, though only one had the audacity to actually ask anything.

"What took you so long, flame brain? Your bags are taking up space in the lobby." Gray said with a smirk.

"We were just checking out the new room," Natsu replied with a slight smirk of his own.

"It takes you almost an hour to look at your room?" Gray sounded pretty incredulous.

Natsu shrugged the question off. "You wouldn't understand popsicle. Get yourself a girlfriend and then maybe you'll figure it out."

"I can get a girlfriend anytime I want, flame brain. I don't have to rob the cradle!" Gray sneered.

Natsu considered ignoring the jab, but decided against it. Gray's insulting slams were really getting out of hand, and he was determined to put a stop to it. "Let me tell you two things right now, Gray. One. Insult me all you want, but don't ever, _ever_ talk bad about Wendy. Two. You could get a girlfriend if you would acknowledge her and stop holding out for someone who's never going to feel that way about you."

"What the fuck do you know about me flame brain?" Gray retorted sullenly.

"I know you still haven't figured out how to stop stripping," Natsu said with a smirk before heading back up to his room with the bags.

A few minutes later he came back down again, leaving Wendy to rest in their room. The lounge of the hotel was about what he expected. Cana sat at the bar, drowning herself in beer while Master yelled and warned her that any tab she ran up would be coming out of her future jobs requests. Lucy, Gray, Juvia, and Mirajane were all at a table not far from Cana, Lucy was doing most of the talking, as usual, and Gray was occasionally glaring in Natsu's direction.

Natsu finally decided to make his way to a corner table, where Happy was currently seeing how far he could push Gajeel, who sat across a table from Levy. Carla sat nearby, her arms crossed and her lips drawn together in a disapproving frown at the blue exceed's antics. Panther Lily was sitting next to Gajeel

"And that's why solid script magic is useful no matter what you're up against," Levy was saying. Gajeel was doing his best to look interested in what Levy said while simultaneously trying to ignore the smooching faces Happy was making behind Levy's back.

"She liiiiikes you," the exceed said at that moment.

Levy blushed, then looked up at Natsu, happy for the interruption. "Hey Natsu-san!" she said.

"Hello Levy, Gajeel." Natsu said, sitting down. "Everyone's in high spirits today."

"Aye sir! And hello to you too, Natsu." Happy exclaimed sarcastically.

"Hi Happy." Natsu said with a slight smirk.

"They're all ready for the beginning of the games to be announced," Levy said. "There are rumors that there are so many guilds entering this year they'll be using some kind of test to weed out the weakest ones right away."

"So far rumors is all they are," Erza said, startling Natsu. When had she come up to the table? "But I wouldn't be surprised. There are a record number of teams registered for the games this year."

"Really?" Natsu said, a little surprised. "Why are there so many teams this year?"

"A couple reasons." Erza replied. "Part of it is because more guilds want the glory of just having their guild name in the games. But everyone's gunning for the 30 million jewel prize as well, of course."

"30 million?!" To say Natsu was shocked would be an understatement. Now he was actually surprised that more guilds weren't entering. "No wonder the guild hall is in such great shape."

"Well actually, that's part of it. But usually most of it goes to pay debts Fairy Tail owes various cities in Fiore for destruction of public property…"

Natsu laughed loudly at that. Apparently not much changed at Fairy Tail, though he'd learned to exercise control of his own magic. "So the new ones are destructive too, eh?"

Erza rolled her eyes. "We can only thank Mavis they're not as powerful as our current generation or people might stop sending job requests to Fairy Tail. With all the damage they cause, winning the grand magic games has become pretty much a necessity."

"Wow," Natsu said with a grin. "Sounds like my kind of people."

Erza glared at him. "I hope you've learned to control your magic a little, Natsu."

Natsu just smirked while Gajeel and Happy laughed out loud. Panther Lily remained stoic and unmoving.

"What's so funny?" Erza looked authentically bewildered at their reaction.

"Have you already forgotten, Erza?" Natsu asked. "You've seen a good portion of my magic power. What do you think would happen if I didn't control it? Even for a few seconds?"

He watched as her eyes flickered, and then she suddenly bowed apologetically. "Of course you've learned restraint. I apologize for implying you haven't. Please hit me."

Natsu laughed boisterously. Apparently some things about Erza Scarlet would never change, not that he would want them to. "I'm not going to hit you Erza," he said with a slight smirk. "And you should stop being so strict, with yourself and others."

"Hey Natsu," Happy said suddenly, interrupting the conversation. "Where's Carla?"

"She's up in our room with Wendy," Natsu replied with a grin. "Probably watching Wendy sleep."

Erza looked at the clock on the wall. "It's only 8:00 Natsu. Why would Wendy be asleep already?"

Natsu felt the mischievous smirk growing on his face again. "Well, Erza. She's had a long day. I mean, six hours riding the train, and then another hour riding me… You know…"

"Riding you?" Erza looked at him with a blank expression as Gajeel sprayed his beer from his mouth and nose. Levy blushed and turned away.

"Yep," Natsu enjoyed seeing Titania so clueless, but decided to drop her another hint anyway. "For a closet pervert you sure are dense."

"GAH!" Erza's face turned the color of her hair, and Natsu broke into another boisterous laugh at the sight. Gajeel joined him, while Levy and Erza just continued blushing furiously.

Suddenly Natsu's nose picked up a strong scent not far from their inn. Even though the scent didn't belong to a familiar person, it intrigued him because of the magic associated with it. It was definitely the scent of someone – no, two people – who used dragon slayer magic.

"Hey Happy," he said suddenly. "Let's go for a walk."

"Going out now?" Erza asked, sounding a little surprised.

"Sure," Natsu said as he got up. He knew they all had to be out of this inn before the deadline. "I haven't seen any of the capital city yet, so it's only natural to go out for a while."

"Ok. But you'd better be back by midnight. That's less than 4 hours." Erza sounded stern, probably hoping to imply a threat of some kind in her tone.

"Yeah, yeah." Natsu waved his hand dismissively. "I'll be back by midnight. Don't worry."

He found it cute the way she glared at him as he walked out, Happy walking beside him. But really, did she expect him to still retain his old terror of her after all these years and his new strength?

Moments later he arrived at the source of the scent. It wasn't actually that hard to find, since there was actually a crowd gathered around. There in front of him were the two dragon slayers. One had spiky blonde hair, wore a sleeveless shirt that was gray in the front and cut off just above his ribcage, and had a weird fur lining around the arms instead of sleeves. His pants were white at the top from the waist triangulated down to the split of the legs, and the legs of the pants were black. The other had shaggy black hair that fell partially over his eyes and shadowed his face. He wore a black cloak over his gray-white shirt and black, kilt-like attire that had an ornate crimson, gold-lined cross on it.

The two were surrounded by a bunch of unconscious mages, and the blonde one had his foot on one of their faces. "Anybody else?" He said arrogantly.

A reddish-brown exceed standing near the man with the spiky-blonde hair said "These guys are literally beneath us."

"Fro thinks so too!" A green exceed in a pink frog suit chimed in. Both seemed to have adopted the arrogant attitude of their dragon slayers. Natsu moved in for a closer look at the pair.

As he approached, the blonde, spiky-haired one looked at him. "You!" he exclaimed.

"Natsu Dragneel," the black-haired dragon slayer said, also looking at him.

"You must be Sting and Rogue, though I don't know which of you is which." Natsu said, taking in their smells and their magic auras. "And honestly, I can't really say that I care much."

"I'm Sting Eucliffe," the blonde mage growled. "And are you trying to look down on us, coward?"

Natsu laughed inwardly, but maintained a cool demeanor on the exterior. "Who are you calling a coward?"

"The dragon slayer who couldn't even make the team for the Grand Magic Games," Sting replied. "I guess 7 years in limbo put you light years behind us. But you wouldn't stand a chance anyway. We're way out of your league."

"Oh really?" Natsu laughed, just as much at the mage's boast as at Happy, who suddenly declared in a shocked voice. "Talking cats!"

"Yes really." The reddish-brown cat replied with a smirk. "Let me explain it to you. Natsu, Wendy, and Gajeel all learned their magic from dragons, so they're called 'first generation' dragon slayers. Laxus and Cobra are able to use their magic thanks to dragon lacrimas in their bodies, so they're 'second generation' dragon slayers. Sting and Rogue are 'third generation' dragon slayers, meaning they learned their magic from dragons and had dragon lacrimas implanted in their bodies. And also meaning they're way out of the league of you first generation weaklings."

"Not only that, we're true dragon slayers." Sting declared with a smirk. "Unlike you weaklings, we actually killed the dragons that trained us."

"I heard the rumors," Natsu said. "But if someone at your level killed the dragons that trained you, then you were trained by some weak ass dragons."

Rogue disappeared into the shadows and reappeared right in front of Natsu. "Care to say that again?"

Natsu could hear some gasps from the crowd around him. Apparently these people were afraid for him. How cute. These guys, who barely possessed the level of magic power that Gray had, didn't even pose a danger to him. But he knew better than to cause a scene now. As much as he'd love to punch both their faces in and show them just what the power of a real true dragon slayer was, now wasn't the time. He couldn't endanger his guild's chances of winning by injuring another guiild's team before the tournament even began.

"It's not worth my time," he said with a shrug, and departed, still seething inwardly. But confusion warred with anger in his mind. For whatever reason, those two punks clearly believed they actually killed their dragons. But they were weaklings. There's no way someone with that level of magic power – even a dragon slayer – could take down an adult dragon. Hell, they were barely ready for the baby dragons he'd fought when he first found himself in that strange world.

Or was it possible that earthland dragons were just that much weaker?

Natsu shook the thought from his mind immediately. Acnologia, the dragon king, would still be more than a challenge for him in his current state. And he was certain that Igneel could've at least matched Acnologia in power. Even if their dragons were half as powerful as Igneel, they would've been lucky to even land a hit on them.

But if he was honest with himself, it didn't much matter to him why they believed they killed the dragons. What really ticked him off was that they seemed proud of it. They proudly talked about killing their parents. What kind of a fucking human being could do that? Even if they did believe it, how could they be happy about it? If he'd killed Igneel…

No, there was no if. Even if Igneel begged him, he never would've been able to direct his attacks at his foster father. If those were the kind of mages that were in Sabertooth he looked forward to beating their punk-asses in due time.

But for now, he needed to make sure he was back to the inn on time.

 **~~~Near the palace gardens~~~**

Lucy didn't even really know how long she'd been wandering. Shortly after she'd seen Natsu leave the guild she'd done the same. She needed to clear her head. She realized that since the dragon slayer's return, she really hadn't had time to process everything that happened during those 7 years.

Of course, she also needed to get away from Gray. Since the dragon slayers returned the ice mage had been absolutely obsessed with taking digs at Natsu – and Wendy when he was certain the other dragon slayers weren't listening – wherever he found opportunity. Lucy hated it. She couldn't deny that she was jealous of Wendy. Hell, she wasn't entirely certain she'd accepted that her chance was gone yet. But Gray was going overboard. She wouldn't even care if it was just their usual back-and-forth banter at each other. What really annoyed her was that he was doing it behind the dragon slayer's back. That made it seem more malicious and less friendly rivalry.

The blonde girl sighed as she entered the gardens. There were a lot of things she didn't understand. Like why had the master changed his mind and not allowed the dragon slayers to participate? Sure, her initial reaction wasn't favorable to them participating, but she felt really guilty when she thought about it. It wasn't like they had a choice about being gone for 7 years. They'd been thrown into another dimension while they were protecting the guild. They were willing to give their lives to save their friends, so why should anyone feel that it was wrong for them to be able to represent them in battle?

She blushed a little then, wondering if she might've had a chance with Natsu if they'd all been there. If the whole group of them had stayed behind, and Wendy didn't have 7 years alone with the dragon slayer. But there was no point in thinking that way. The past couldn't be changed. She could only look toward the—

Suddenly she felt her magic power drained quickly away. She barely had the time to wonder what was happening before consciousness left her and she drifted to the ground.


	10. Chapter 10

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. Mashima owns those.

So here's the next chapter of Dragon Slayers of Fairy Tail. I will be updating Fiery Jade next, followed by Exploring the World with you and The Size of His Heart. I really want to close out Fiery Jade and The Size of His Heart so I can start work on the next story (which will be determined by the poll on my profile).

Read and Review please!**

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"Has anyone found Lucy yet?" Mirajane asked worriedly. The pumpkin had just finished explaining the rules to the preliminary round, which would end when the first 8 teams reached Domus Flau.

Everyone shook their heads 'no' in response. Mira frowned. "Well, I really hate to do this, but get Elfman up here. We need five members to enter Domus Flau or we'll be disqualified."

Elfman quickly ran up and the group ascended their ramp into the maze. Just after they got inside the fighting started.

One of the first groups they ran into was an upstart guild in Magnolia called Twilight's Ogre. The guild started almost 6 years ago, but hadn't gone anywhere, probably because the master didn't have the brains to open up shop in a town that didn't have Fiore's biggest, most popular guild in it. Of course, rather than blame the guildmaster for their plight, the members blamed Fairy Tail.

"Oh look, the fairies are here to get their asses kicked." One member, a tall, heavyset man with a mohawk said.

"Too bad fairies. Guess we know who's not making it into the games this year," another, shorter man said.

"Yeah, guess so." Mirajane said, an evil aura emanating from her.

15 seconds later 5 mages could be seen falling from the sky labyrinth as the Fairy Tail mages dusted their hands off.

"You know, I've taken out the trash lots of times, but this is the first time it's tried to talk back to me." Elfman said as his beast arm reverted to normal, earning him a chuckle from the others.

"Alright, no time to waste. We need to get moving," Mirajane said, taking off and running deeper into the sky labyrinth.

There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the labyrinth. It was like a random jumble of stairs, walls, floors, ceilings… And then this strange bell started to ring.

"What's that about?" Elfman asked as everyone came to a stop, looking around them.

Before anyone could speculate on the reason for the bell, everything started to move. "Everyone grab onto something quick!" Instantly all but one of the Fairy Tail mages was holding onto something.

"GAH!" Gray yelled as he plummeted toward the depths below the sky labyrinth.

"Satan Soul!" In a flash, before Gray could hit the disqualification zone, Mirajane caught him and brought him back up to the rest of the group. The 5 then resumed their progress toward Domus Flau.

"So every time that bell goes off, everything's gonna' shift again." Elfman said, looking toward the ground. Mira sighed. What a silly thing for him do be depressed over. She was about to say something when he looked up, new energy in his eyes as he pumped his fist into the air. "The Sky Labyrinth is a MAN!"

Mira face-palmed. Ok. She should've seen that coming. "Let's just get to the center," she said with a sigh.

It was a long, hard trek, and they beat up several other guilds along the way. But finally, almost by accident, they fell into a very different part of the sky labyrinth. Unlike the endless winding staircases and passageways before, the place they had just fallen into was lush with vegetation, even water. With a long path running down the center of it. How could such a place even exist in this sky labyrinth? Yet it did.

Then suddenly it got even weirder. Elfman was the first to comment as the greenery around them came to an end, changing to a seemingly endless plane of blue. "The – the sea?!" He exclaimed.

"How can this happen? Are we even in the sky labyrinth? I mean, look at the sky!"

"No," Mira said. "If you look closely you can see that the sky is painted on." She could see small patches where the painting job wasn't perfect and gears or other metal pieces showed through.

"And we're almost there!" Gray shouted, taking off at a sprint down the path that led across the water. There was a door, barely visible at the top of the path. And no other teams were in sight!

Mira grinned. Not only did they find their destination, they must've beat all the competition out by a mile! They could get to the arena and take their time basking in the glory of being the first team through.

"Here we are!" She grinned as she came up to the door to find a short man wearing a pumpkin head standing by it.

"Mirajane Strauss, Gray Fullbuster, Juvia Lockser, Elfman Strauss, Cana Alberona. Congratulations, you have passed the elimination round."

"It was a breeze," Gray said with a grin.

"Of course we passed it. Fairy Tail is a man!" Elfman exclaimed.

"Are we the first team to make it?" Mirajane asked with confidence.

"Actually, you barely made it. You're the 8th team to pass."

Mirajane couldn't even come up with a response as the energy and confidence drained from her instantly. They came in 8th? After all that? Sure, they had a few setbacks, but she was sure they made good enough progress to come in better than 8th…

"WHAT?" The others shouted as their countenances also lost the vigor and confidence that they possessed but seconds earlier.

 **~~~~~~Time Skip: Opening Day~~~~~~**

"I'm your Emcee, Chapati Rola, and next to me is ex-council member Yajima-san, who will provide commentary. I'd also like to introduce our special guest and the current Miss Fiore, Jenny Realight!"

Mira clenched her teeth at the name. Every time she met the young model the girl would talk shit to her about being overtaken as the #1 most desirable woman in Fiore. But now was the time. Along with the rest of her team, most of whom had done this at least once in the last couple years, she headed down to the end of the tunnel out into the open arena of Domus Flau.

"Finishing 8th in the elimination round, and this must come as quite a shock for the current number one guild in Fiore, Fairy Tail!"

The stadium around them erupted into cheers as the team came out. Juvia and Lucy blushed. Mirajane offered Jenny specifically a big smile and a 'friendly' wave. Elfman flexed. Gray just stood there and waved.

As the cheers died down, Chapati continued. "In 7th place we have the hounds of hell, Quatro Cerberus!" The cheering continued as the next guild came out, led by their ace Bacchus. Elfman growled as the ace of Quatro came out, and Mira just giggled. She knew her younger brother didn't like the fact that Bacchus would hit on her and Lisanna any chance he got.

"In sixth place the all female guild… Mermaid Heel!" Cheers erupted, especially loud from every male in the audience as Mermaid Heel came into the stadium. Mira was surprised to see Millianna among the Mermaid Heel wizards. So Erza's friend had decided to join a guild after all.

"In fifth place, are the blue wings in dark, Blue Pegasus!" The trimens and Ichiya appeared, all in their rather unique poses as the crowd continued to cheer.

"In fourth place the holy destroyer, Lamia Scale!" Cheers erupted as the Lamia Scale team took the field, led by Jura and Lyon.

"Why did you come in fourth you slackers?" Obaba yelled from the stands.

"I'm sorry Obaba, I messed up!" Chelia said just before tripping and falling to the ground.

"And now, finishing in third place…" Chapati's voice sounded again through the loudspeakers. "Oh my, this is a surprise, and on their first time participating in the Grand Magic Games…. Raven Tail!"

"And now, in second place, the guild that's always just a few points away from toppling the mighty Fairy Tail….. Sabertooth!"

Cheers erupted as Sabertooth's team came out on the field. Orga, Sting, and Rogue led the group out, with Yukino and Rufus trailing behind a little. The group acted cocky, pointing to the crowd, waving their hands in the air, and even giving the Fairy Tail group a thumbs down.

"And another shocker! In first place, just back from a 7 year time lapse at Tenrou Island…. It's Fairy Tail Team B!"

"NAAANNNIIIII!" The color drained from Mira's face as she watched Natsu and Laxus walk out, closely trailed by Gajeel, Erza, and Levy.

"That's not even fair…." Lucy cried.

Gray just glared at the other team, his smile gone.

"The only one I can hope to compete with is Levy…" Elfman said holding his head in his hands. "But as a man I can't lose!"

Just then Jenny's voice sounded in the loudspeakers. "Well, I don't know how they managed first in the elimination round, but with only one strong member I think B Team is just gonna' be for show. I mean, we all know how powerful Erza is, but those other 3 just got out of a seven year stasis, and everyone knows solid script users aren't very useful except as support. They're lucky they even made it through the preliminaries."

"Well, now we have Jenny's opinion, but what does Yajima-san think?" Chapati called over the loudspeakers.

"Hmmm…" Yajima stroked his chin. "Judging from the other Fairy Tail team's reaction, I'm guessing anyone who thinks along Jenny's lines is in for a big surprise. They may have been gone for seven years, but there may be more to the dragon slayers of Fairy Tail than meets the eye!"

 **[A/N – you all know what happens in the games, so I'm just going to focus on the things that will change…]**

"Alright, for the first round… Everyone send a team member forward to compete. The name of this challenge is 'Hidden.'"

"Heh – I'll take care of this one," Gray smirked.

"Alright, you got it Gray." Mira said with her own smirk. "Just don't disappoint us."

Gray nodded as the other teams sent their choices forward. Nullpudding for Raven Tail, Rufus for Sabertooth, Lyon from Lamia Scale, Beth from Mermaid Heel, Eve from Blue Pegasus, Jager from Quatro Cerberus, and Gajeel from Fairy Tail B Team.

The rules of the game were simple enough. The objective was to land a hit on an opponent team member. Every hit would send the member back to their own starting point. However, there was a catch. There would be lots of clones of everyone walking around, and hitting a clone would cause you to lose a point. Additionally, suffering a hit and being sent to your team starting point would cause you to lose a point.

Gray had just started out and was looking for a target when he was attacked out of nowhere by Nullpudding, losing a point and being sent back to his starting area.

Eve cause the air to become cold to easily discern who the clones – who didn't breathe – were. This allowed him to find actual targets.

In the meantime Gajeel, whose battle instincts were heightened after 7 years of fighting for his life, noticed that someone had detached from the rest of them, taking to the roof. He looked up to see a lone figure in red and smirked. The man was watching, trying to ascertain everyone's position so he could attack from above.

"Not gonna' give you the time," he muttered as he leapt up to the rooftops, moving faster than Rufus could block, and landed an iron club on him. The red-clothed mage landed back in his own starting area.

Below him, he saw Nullpudding start to go after Gray, who was just turning to block him. With a smirk, Gajeel dove between them, hitting Gray with a foot and Nullpudding with his iron sword attack before either of them could attack the other. Fairy Tail B Team's count went up to 3.

He was heading off to find more prey when his nose told him Rufus was heading for the rooftops again. "Man, does he ever learn?" Gajeel smirked, heading up to finish Rufus off again.

This time the memory make mage was prepared, or so he thought, but Gajeel saw that he was ready and simply used a little more of his magic power and speed. He came in so fast that Rufus could barely see him, let alone memorize his attack, and again the Sabertooth mage was returned to his starting point.

By the time "Hidden" was over, Fairy Tail B was in the lead with 13 points, and Sabertooth had only achieved 3 after Rufus finally realized he had to give up on his strategy. Fairy Tail A managed to finish with 1 point, tying for last place with Quatro Cerberus.

 **~~~~~~Infirmary~~~~~~~**

"Why would anyone do this?" Happy wondered aloud as the exceeds sat by Lucy's bed in the infirmary, much to the chagrin of the old healer who was tending her.

"I don't know," Carla said. "I would say a rival guild who wants to weaken us, but if that were the case wouldn't it make more sense to go after Erza?"

"Anyone but Lucy would make sense." Happy snickered.

"Happy, be nice!" Carla reprimanded. "Lucy is an S-Class mage now, you know."

"Yeah, yeah." Happy said. "You know I was just joking Carla. But seriously. What was the motivation?"

Just then Gajeel came in. "Happy, Carla. Surprised to see you here." Pantherlily came in behind him, currently in his small exceed form.

"We were just checking on Lucy and wondering why someone would target her," Happy said.

"Hmmm…" Pantherllily crossed his arms, looking at her. "Maybe someone wants to kidnap her and sell her on the slave market?"

"No way," Gajeel said with a little smirk. "If they were after slaves they would've gone for someone like Mira, or Jenny, who's up in the booth right now."

"Anyway, Porlyusica says she's gonna' recover," Happy said. "She said she got most of her magic drained very suddenly though."

"Most likely someone trying to send a message," Gajeel said, remembering with a slight shudder his days with Phantom Lord. "She was alone when this happened, making her an easy target. I'm guessing that whoever did this can only do it to one person at a time."

"Most likely, brat." The group turned to see Makarov coming into the room. "And if I had to guess, I can only think of one team here that would stoop that low. Too bad we don't have any evidence…"

Gajeel caught his meaning immediately, though sadly he hadn't been around for the last 7 years to act as a double (or maybe double-double?) agent for Fairy Tail. If Raven Tail was behind this, they could be disqualified from the games for attacking another team outside of the tournament. Now that he thought about it, there was a wizard in Raven Tail who was capable of this kind of magic when he left.

As more people from the guild came in to check on her, Gajeel slipped back out into the halls. He made his way to the B Team booth where Natsu was watching the games. Lucy's condition worried him, but he had something more pressing on his mind. He approached the other dragon slayer slowly, speaking in a whisper that he knew only dragon's ears would be able to pick up.

"Hey Natsu, I think there's something weird going on here."

"I'm listening," Natsu responded in similar tones that Gajeel knew were meant for him only.

"Two things that are weird," Gajeel replied quietly. "First, I followed a cloaked figure today because he had a… familiar scent. When I finally got a look at his face, he looked just like that Mystogan guy who's supposed to be in Edolas right now. The funny thing is, even though he smelled like Mystogan, he wasn't. The smell was close, but not the same, like a relative or something."

"Jellal…" Natsu muttered, his fists clenching at his sides.

"The one that's supposed to be in council prison?" Gajeel asked, surprised.

"Yeah." Natsu growled. "He must've escaped at some point. But that's hardly enough to be worrisome."

"Yeah," Gajeel said. "The other problem is a mystery wizard. He was also wearing a cloak, but it was different from anything I've ever felt before. The only time I've noticed something similar was when I felt a pulse of dark magic on Acnologia. When that guy attacked you and turned your scarf black."

"Oh yeah…" Natsu thought back to the island. The black-haired guy was important somehow. He had a famous name or something. "Something with a Z," he wondered aloud. "Zed… Zef… Zerf…"

"Zeref?" Gajeel asked, his eyes opening wide in shock.

"That's the one," Natsu confirmed. "But why would Zeref be here?"

"A better question is how would he be here?" Gajeel said quietly. "It seems impossible without the council noticing."

"Alright, keep your eyes and ears open." Natsu said with a shrug. "Right now there's nothing else we can do anyway. Let Wendy and Laxus know so we can all be alert. And be ready for anything."

Gajeel nodded and headed off to inform Laxus, and Wendy afterward.

After Gajeel left, Natsu turned his attention back to the battlefield. Chapati was announcing the first one-on-one battle of the day.

"Our first matchup is… Fairy Tail's Juvia Lockser vs. Raven Tail's Flare Corona!"

"Now this is an interesting match up," Yajima commented. "juvia Lockser, the rain woman and one of Fairy Tail's strongest S-class mages, against Flare Corona, who is known to use hair and fire magic. Will the water douse the flames? Or will the fire be strong enough to consume the water?"

"Well, we're about to find out!" Yajima exclaimed. "The match is starting now!"

As they called match start, Juvia made the first move with water slicer. Flare immediately whipped her hair in front of the attack, effectively blocking it and taking minimal damage. Her hair then shot out to attack Juvia, who gracefully avoided its attempts to snatch her.

"Water Nebula!" This attack hit Flare hard, knocking her back to the ground and many feet away. When Flare got up, scratched and bruised, Natsu saw fury in her eyes. Juvia moved into a defensive posture as the hair came forward again, prepared for whatever the fire mage might through at her.

Natsu couldn't see Flare's face, but he could see Juvia's. Juvia's features turned from cool readiness to shock and anger and then to resignation. Natsu quickly tuned his ear to the conversation.

"Say anything. Defend yourself. Try to alert your team. And she dies."

Natsu instantly scanned the stadium, finding the Fairy Tail booth. He focused on the spot, his enhanced dragon vision allowing him to see every little detail. Including a strand of red hair creeping out of the stonework right behind Asuka.

 _That bitch is threatening Asuka!_ Natsu thought as he quietly slipped from his team's booth. He didn't see what was happening in the battle as he raced to the Fairy Tail team booth. He didn't need to see it. He just needed to get to Asuka before that Raven Tail bitch… that coward, won the match. He got to the Fairy Tail booth quickly and grabbed Asuka, holding her above his head for Juvia to see.

"JUVIA!" He shouted as loudly as he could. He didn't care if she was on the opposing team. Nobody deserved to lose to a cheater. He saw Juvia look up at him and smile in relief.

"You…" Juvia said, now that she knew Asuka was safe. "You threaten a member of Juvia's guild who's not even in combat? A child no less? Cowards like you have no right to call yourselves mages." Juvia was so angry she was slipping in and out of third person. "Juvia will finish this now! Tsunami blade!"

The sound of rushing water filled the stadium like a waterfall, so that Natsu almost had to cover his sensitive ears to block out some of the sound. An enormous blade of water, at least 50 feet in length, formed over Juvia's head, the water swirling angrily along the blade and especially the tip. As soon as the blade was fully formed, it plunged toward Flare with blinding speed. The other girl sat there shaking in fear.

Then suddenly the attack disappeared. There was no impact. No deflection. It was just gone.

"It…. It can't be…" Juvia said, on her knees. Natsu surmised that between the beating she took before and the enormous power she put into that spell her magic reserves were depleted. But what had stopped the spell? It hadn't been Flare. Nor Juvia. Her magic was still as strong as ever till after the spell disappeared. That left only one possibility. Raven Tail cheated.

"Juvia is down, and that means Flare Corona wins this battle! 5 points go to Raven Tail. And they'll need it after Fairy Tail's early lead in the "hidden" game."

There were mixed reactions from the crowd. Some cheered, but many were just murmuring confusedly at what they'd seen. How had Flare won without even lifting a finger just when she was about to be utterly defeated?

Not bothering to watch the next match, since it wasn't going to have a Fairy Tail wizard in it, Natsu went to find Gajeel. Long ago he overheard the iron dragon slayer and Makarov talking about the guild Raven Tail. He knew Gajeel's involvement with the guild was supposed to be a secret, but if anyone could give him an explanation for what just happened, it was Gajeel.

He found him about halfway down the hall, coming from the Fairy Tail infirmary area where Wendy spent a lot of her time, and of course where Lucy was still recovering. Wendy said she would go out to watch Natsu battle, but had no interest in the other fights.

"Gajeel, I need your help with something." He told the iron dragon slayer.

"Gehe. The almighty Salamander needs _my_ help?" Gajeel laughed.

Natsu then proceeded to explain what occurred during Juvia's battle with Flare, specifically the way her last attack was just suddenly nullified as though it hadn't happened. The entire time he watched Gajeel for a reaction, but as always the iron dragon slayer didn't let anything show as he talked.

"Anyway," he finished. "I need to know if anyone in Raven Tail has magic they could use to cancel her spell."

"How would I know anything about Raven Tail's wizards?"

"Because both you and gramps sometimes forget that you're not the only dragon slayer in the guild," Natsu replied. The iron dragon slayer's eyes widened a bit, but otherwise his expression didn't change. "But honestly, I don't need to know specifics. I just need to know if someone in Raven Tail could've interfered."

Gajeel sighed. "Yes, there is a wizard in Raven Tail that could have nullified her spell before it hit Flare. And I wouldn't put it past them to cheat like that. Though that was extremely bold, especially in front of a former magic council as well as the game referees. But from the sound of it, nobody suspected anything?"

"Well, it seemed as though Yajima thought it was strange," Natsu said, thinking about the former council member's reaction to the fight. "But I don't think he or anyone else actually saw what happened, so they couldn't do anything about it."

"Hmm…" Gajeel looked thoughtful for a few minutes, then just shrugged. "Eh well. It's not like they can keep doing it. One time might get passed over, but if it keeps happening somebody's bound to notice."

"I suppose," Natsu said quietly. "Well, we're going to keep an eye on them, at least. As to the other matter, have you informed Wendy and Laxus?"

"I did. But if I could ask a question, Salamander, why not inform Master Makarov?"

"We'll inform Makarov as soon as we're sure this is something worth his time. The old man already has a lot on his mind with Raven Tail's presence in the game, not to mention the appearance of First Master." Natsu nodded toward the exuberant, childlike figure sitting on the balcony with the Fairy Tail team.

"I suppose you're right." Gajeel said. "But now we need to get back to our booth. It seems the next fight is already over."

Natsu nodded, and he and Gajeel returned to the Fairy Tail B Team waiting area. They were just in time to hear the announcement.

"And for the next battle, we have the 4th ranked Wizard Saint pitted against the 5th ranked Wizard Saint. This will be a battle of epic proportions. People of Fiore, I give you Erza Scarlet vs. Jura Neekis!"

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**And there's chapter 10. Next chapter: Erza vs. Jura, plus, when Gajeel and Laxus encounter the cloaked figure with Zeref-like magic, will they be able to unveil his or her identity? Find out in The Dragon Slayers of Fairy Tail: Chapter 11!

Oh, and don't forget to drop a review!**


	11. Chapter 11

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. They all belong to Mashima.

Chapter 11 is here! Sorry for the long wait, but I was really struggling with the Erza/Jura fight for some reason. Anyway, it's done now, and hopefully you all like it :D

Also, a heads up, I have some busy weeks ahead of me so I don't know how frequently I'll be updating my stories. I'll try to get at least one story updated a week though.

Read and review!**

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A thunderous roar echoed through the air in Domus Flau as two of the strongest mages in Fiore stepped out into the stadium. Erza stepped in dressed in her usual Heart Kruz armor, a smile gracing her features as she acknowledged the cheering crowd. As she reached the center of the arena, she turned her attention to the mage opposite to her. The 4th ranked wizard saint wouldn't be a simple opponent to beat.

The air was tense as she took her place across from him, a bead of sweat dripping from her brow. She blocked the roaring of the crowds from her mind, focusing on the match referee who was about to start the fight. She saw his lips move, reading the starting words as quickly as they reached her ear. The moment he finished she requipped to one of her strongest armors. "Requip: Fairy Retribution Armor!"

Her lip curled in satisfaction as she heard the surprised gasps from the crowd. This was an armor nobody except her strongest enemies had seen her in, and normally she wouldn't even think of using it for a duel. But she was fighting a wizard saint, and one who was ranked higher than her.

"Rock Fist!" He started with a straightforward attack, causing the rock below them to form into a giant fist that raced toward her. She dodged quickly, easily even. Then stumbled quickly to recover her balance. Her body always took a few moments to get used to the speed enhancements her fairy retribution armor gave her.

"Rock Avalanche!" Erza cursed under her breath as a rock grazed her, knocking her off balance again. Even such a simple mistake could be dangerous when fighting an opponent as skilled as Jura. He wasn't the fourth wizard saint for nothing, after all. More rocks shot at her, giving her no time to fully recover her balance. She put all her energy into just letting them graze her.

But by the time the Rock Avalanche was over, her body fully adapted to the enhanced speed and agility. Jura was already beginning his next spell, but she didn't give him the time. As she saw the last of the rocks approaching, she charged forward through the spell, accepting a glancing blow from one of the rocks. But it was a measured risk. By taking the hit, she could reach her opponent before he thought it possible.

Her first strike was blocked as she expected, but she forced Jura to interrupt his spell to block her. She pressed her advantage, coming underneath with a blade toward his gut. Then across his neckline. Without breaking her body's fluid motion, she continued with another attack to his left side. And even as that sword withdrew another raced forward to pierce his neck.

She continued thrusting, parrying his occasional attempts to get past her swords with a fist or rock palm, slicing, and stabbing. She needed to keep him off balance long enough. The swords were very powerful, but their magic took some time to complete.

But now the spell was finally ready, and in her next attack she leapt back from her opponent, bringing her swords both above her head so they pointed toward the sky. "Fairy's Devastating light!" A pillar of pure white energy descended from the sky at the speed of light onto her opponent, enveloping the entire area around him to within inches of where she leapt back to. She then jumped away, quickly, just before the pillar condensed into a large sphere, then exploded, causing a shockwave that shook the entire arena.

"What an amazing attack!" Chapati yelled from the announcer's booth. "I don't know if there's anyway Jura will still be able to fight after that! Has Erza done it? Has the 5th wizard saint overcome the fourth?"

His answer came when the dust cleared from the explosion, revealing Jura, breathing deeply, surrounded by the last shards of his Rock Mountain spell.

"Amazing! Jura's iron defense withstood the Fairy's powerful blow!" Chapati yelled, as the rest of the stadium just watched in breathless anticipation.

"As expected of the 4th wizard saint," Yajima said calmly beside him. "I think this battle is far from over."

"Rumbling Mt. Fuji!" Erza leapt back, but even her enhanced speed wasn't enough to fully evade the immense blast of magic energy that shot from the ground below her. At the last moment, she requipped to her Adamantine Armor, bracing herself against the magic power that surrounded her. The force of the attack was enough to crack her armor in several places, and she had to requip back to her Fairy Retribution Armor.

"It looks like Erza somehow fended off the attack! She heard Chapati say as the light from the magic energy faded. She looked at her opponent, breathing deeply as she gathered her strength.

"Fairy's impending doom," she muttered, not giving him time to attack again as she took an aggressive stance, her swords crossed and held out toward her opponent. A large glowing sphere, much like the Fairy Sphere, appeared around Jura, and beams of yellow-white magic energy began to strike at the wizard saint from every direction. Beams quickly shattered the rock pillars created by his Talus spell. The sphere, combined with the blinding white-yellow flashes of energy, made it impossible to see what was happening inside beyond that.

"In-incredible! This is the first time I've seen an attack of such magnitude!" Chapati yelled from the announcer's booth. "Does Jura even have a chance to survive this?!"

"Jura's the 4th wizard saint for a reason," Yajima said calmly beside him. "It will take more than this to bring him down."

And when the light beams faded and the sphere disappeared, Yajima was proved right. Jura remained, a bit more bruised and cut now, standing in the middle of a crater left behind by the powerful attack. Erza whipped her swords up at the ready, but she didn't have time to block the next attack.

"Supreme King Rock Crush!" Erza just had enough time to requip to her cracked Adamantine Armor before she was enveloped in a mountain of boulders. She could only hope the already breaking armor would hold out against this powerful attack…

 **~~~~~~Natsu~~~~~~**

"Natsu, you smell that?"

Natsu didn't look away as Jura's rocks crashed down on Erza from all sides, threatening to crush her in their embrace. "Of course I smell it, scrap metal."

"Very funny flame head. You coming or not? If we want to find out who this is, now's the time."

Natsu sighed, casting one long look at the pile of boulders before following Gajeel. He could faintly see the hood disappearing through the crowd beyond them.

Who was the mysterious man in the hood? Why did Crime Sorciere claim his magic was like Zeref's magic? And most of all, why did he smell so familiar?

Natsu and Gajeel stayed back as they pushed through the crowd, careful not to stare at the cloaked figure ahead. Should he turn back, having their attention focused on him would be a dead giveaway of what they were doing. So Natsu mostly watched him in his peripheral, directing his gaze toward other people and things that they passed as they pushed through the crowd of onlookers.

Once they were outside the arena and the crowd cleared, Natsu motioned to Gajeel and the two closed quickly. The figure sped up as well, seeming to sense their presence, but he wasn't getting away. The two dragon slayers had years of combat and survival to hone their speed and strength. He barely got 100 feet before they caught up to him, turning him back toward them.

Natsu felt his eyes widen as he looked at the figure in front of him. The man was older, certainly. His face was half covered in some strange black markings. But the eyes and the other half of the face were unmistakable.

"Gray…" Gajeel must've seen it too, as he was the first to speak. "No wonder you smelled so familiar."

"If you really are Gray," Natsu said cautiously, "then you can't be from our world. You're too much different. And an old man too."

The Gray before them looked between the two, his eyes conflicted as though he were trying to decide what he should do in this situation. Finally he appeared to arrive at an answer, and he drew himself up, snorting softly. "I'm far from old, flame-brain." The voice was Gray's. A bit deeper. A little more mellow in tone, but definitely Gray's voice. "And I'm not from another world. I'm actually from the future of this world."

"The future?" Natsu smelled him again. He smelled like Gray, but different too. And the black markings on his face had a strange feel and scent to them. "If you're Gray from the future, how did that happen?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at the stranger.

"Ah. This is a power I acquired at great cost…" Gray's eyes took on a hint of sadness, but then returned to determination. "And before you ask, I'm here to stop somebody that I was unable to stop in the future. This power is what I need to be able to defeat him."

"Who?" Natsu asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I can't tell you that," Gray replied. "The future hasn't happened yet, and knowing who I was unable to defeat could cause you to make different decisions and throw the whole future out of whack."

"Or we could help you find him and defeat him," Gajeel said quietly. "If he's a threat, there shouldn't be a problem."

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you get involved. As I said, it could change the course of the future."

"Whatever popsicle," Natsu said with a sigh, stepping back. "But don't expect us to help you if someone else, like Crime Sorciere or the magic council, catch up with you."

"Oh, I'll be sure to be more careful," Gray responded as Gajeel reluctantly backed off as well. "After all, if I let a flame brain like you catch me I must be getting careless."

"Pff," Natsu scoffed. "Get out of here ice princess."

In that moment he thought he saw a look of undiluted anger flash through the ice mage's eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it came. "Later flame brain," he said. Then he turned and headed off in the direction of the castle.

"Something's strange there…" Gajeel said as Gray departed.

Natsu just shrugged. "It's Gray. When is he not strange?"

"I meant more than usual," Gajeel said, glaring at him.

Whil Natsu agreed with the iron dragon slayer, he couldn't really be bothered to think too much of it right now. He was just here to enjoy the games, and maybe fight a few interesting people. He could only hope those two dragon slayers from Sabertooth were more powerful than they seemed when he ran into them on the street…

"Let's get back to the games," was all he said as he started back toward the arena. A few moments later he heard Gajeel follow him and sighed. The iron dragon slayer wasn't ready to give this up easily.

 **~~~~~~Erza~~~~~~**

The weight of the rocks was a crushing force. She could feel it even through her Adamantium armor. The armor was already cracked, and with this pressure…

*Crack* she heard it before she felt it. The moment when her armor was about to be shattered. But she couldn't let it be shattered by the attack. With no armor to protect her, this would certainly take her out of the fight. She had only mere milliseconds before the rocks brock through her armor and there was nothing between her and their crushing weight. She couldn't even hear the roar of the crowd or the announcer through the thickness of the boulders surrounding her.

"Requip: Nakagami Armor!" It was a gamble, but if she could pull it off…

She strained against the rocks, barely managing to move her arms, but it was enough. With her peerless sword she broke through, just as the rocks collapsed behind her, panting from the strain of the crushing weight and the magic power she had to use to sustain this armor.

"What a shock!" Chapati's words rang in her ears through the utter silence that descended on the arena. "It seems Erza managed to cut through the attack at the last minute and escape! But she didn't come out unscathed. Now both combatants are tired and worn down, but they're not about to give up! This has been a spectacular battle!"

"As expected of two of Fiore's wizard saints," Yajima commented beside him. Erza cringed inwardly. Was that all the former council member knew how to say?

"This next attack will finish it," Jura said calmly across from her, reminding her that the battle was still not over yet. But he was scraped up, bruised, and tired also. A small smirk crossed her lips. He wanted to finish it because he didn't know if he had any more left after the next attack.

"My thoughts exactly," she said. If she allowed herself to be hit by another one of the wizard saint's powerful magic attacks she wouldn't be able to continue. She requipped to her most dangerous armor, the armor she would never pull out in a normal battle because of its deadly power.

"Requip: Elemental God's Armor!"

The armor that appeared on her almost looked like one of Mirajane's take-overs. The breastplate, legs, and arms were composed of a thin sheen of pure diamond. Flames burned bright inside the diamond, creating brilliant red and orange patterns that were ever flickering, ever changing across the surface. The diamonds were set over a flexible black material that fight somewhat like a one-piece swimsuit, revealing a good amount of cleavage. The helmet was made of a pure black substance, yet inside it looked like liquid, with wind swirling just beneath the surface. Two swords were in her hands, one with a blue blade that swirled like the ocean, yet without losing any of the sharpness of the edge. The other blade was a bright metallic gray, shining like sunlight reflecting off titanium. When the requip finished, she was in a ready stance, dropped into a slight, forward facing crouch, with her swords held just outside her shoulders in front of her.

"Raging Earth!" Jura plunged his palm downward, then pulled it back up. The ground beneath Erza shook and began breaking apart, chunks of rocks rising from the trembling ground and flying at her. The experienced wizard used the solid rock beneath her to shoot forward through the attack, her swords slicing through rocks that would surely have cost her the match as though they were butter. This was the deciding moment. The finishing blow. If she slowed down even for a moment it was over. If one of the large boulders made contact she surely wouldn't be able to recover. Her arms worked furiously, slicing through one rock after another, and all the while she felt the firm ground slipping away even as her feet left it behind.

Then she was close enough, reaching inside the powerful finishing attack Jura had launched. With her last strength she lunged forward.

"Strike of the 5 elements!" As her swords impacted Jura, who was unable to dodge the attack, his body became encased in a diamond-like substance similar to her armor, only with no cloth underneath. Then, inside the diamond, the elements broke loose, appearing one after another. Water battered the mage inside the shell. Fire scorched and burned. Earthen spikes protruded from the casing. Wind whipped through, so sharp that it was slicing the skin. Ice formed inside the casing, chilling the person inside to the bone.

After a few moments the casing faded, and Jura dropped to his knees. "It was a great battle," he said before he fell, his eyes closing as he lost consciousness.

"And the winner is Erza from Fairy Tail!" Chapati yelled. Erza waved, acknowledging the cheers of the crowd even though she was barely able to stand. But looking out she noticed that Natsu wasn't with Team B in their booth. Gajeel also seemed to be missing. Where could the two have gone off to in the middle of the fight?

But her mind didn't have time to worry about that as she struggled not to fall to her knees, exhausted from the fight against Jura. This had been her most difficult fight, and she barely had energy left to remain upright. Holding her head high, she somehow summoned the strength to walk back to their team booth, where she quickly sat by Laxus and Levy.

"That guy's a monster, huh?" Laxus said with a slight smirk.

"That's what people say," Erza said. "But then, most of them haven't seen real monsters, have they?"

Laxus just smirked at her. Levy pretended to be ignoring the conversation, directing her gaze toward the next battle that was starting.

"Speaking of monsters," Erza said, "what happened to Natsu and Gajeel?"

"They left to check out something interesting," Laxus replied with a shrug. "They should be back soon."

"I hope so," Erza replied. "I'd sure hate for them to miss anything important."

Just then Natsu came into the booth. He glanced over at Erza and offered her a toothy grin. "Hey, you look really exhausted," he said. "But at least you won, right?"

"Of course I won! And who said I'm tired? I could go another round right now!" Erza glared. How could he tell just by looking at her that she didn't have a drop of energy left anyway?

"How about a quick spar then?" Natsu said with a wink.

"How about we watch the rest of the fights and see what we're up against?" Erza said, annoyed that the dragon slayer called her bluff. Of course, she also knew that he was bluffing to an extent. But he wouldn't hesitate to fight if she took him up on it. So he wasn't really bluffing.

"So what did you two go out after?" Erza asked as Natsu and Gajeel each settled into seats nearby. She wondered what could have come up that would cause the two to leave in the middle of her match. Especially since they seemed particularly interested in watching her battle.

"We tracked some guy who's probably the one Jellal's group sensed," Natsu said with a shrug.

"Oh really? Did you catch him?"

"He got away," Natsu said with a shrug. Erza didn't entirely believe him. He had that look he got when he was trying to lie, or at least conceal important information. She looked to Gajeel to see if he would add anything, but the iron dragon slayer remained silent.

"So a random stranger managed to evade two of the all powerful dragon slayers?" She asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. _Please take the bait. Please take the bait._

Natsu didn't respond, just shrugged and looked out at the battlefield where the next one on one was taking place.

"I wonder when we'll get a turn," he said.

Just then an announcement was made by Chapati. "Attention ladies and gentlemen. This is a highly unusual occurrence, but due to the popularity of this request and the desire of the king and the princess to see this match, the following match that was scheduled for tomorrow will take place today instead. Today the twin dragon slayers of Sabertooth will test their battle strength against the dragon slayers of Fairy Tail! The next battle will be Rogue Cheney and Sting Eucliff verses Natsu Dragneel and Gajeel Redfox!"

A smile spread over Natsu's face as he listened, turning to Gajeel with a smirk. "Rumor has it these guys killed dragons. Maybe this'll be a fun match."

"I wouldn't count on it," Gajeel muttered, and Erza had to lean in a little to hear him. "Their magic power feels pretty low."

"I thought so too," Natsu replied. "But maybe they're just masking it somehow. It sounds crazy, but there was no hint that they were lying when they said they killed their dragons, so they absolutely believe what they said."

"That doesn't make it true," Gajeel's response echoed what Erza was thinking. "Many people have believed things that were nothing more than lies, planted in their minds by others."

"You may have a point their metal head," Natsu said. "But we won't find out till we fight them, will we?"

"Bah, there's no talking to you about anything." Gajeel growled.

"I'm all fired up," Natsu grinned. Then the two headed out into the arena to start their battle.

"So what do you think the outcome will be?" Chapati asked Yajima over the loudspeakers.

"I can't really say," Yajima responded. "Both Natsu and Gajeel are coming back from a seven year time gap, seemingly. So it's possible that the Sabertooth dragon slayers have an advantage, since they've battled and trained for 7 years. However, we also don't know for sure what happened during the 7 years that Fairy Tail's dragon slayers disappeared, so the advantage may go to Fairy Tail."

Jenny grabbed the microphone. "I think Saber's gonna' win. Natus and Gajeel may have been powerful back in their day, but the world moved 7 years while they were just gone. My prediction is they won't even put up a good fight."

Erza couldn't help but laugh at the girl's arrogance. She, and probably Sabertooth from the looks of it, were about to be very surprised. She then noticed that Sting was saying something to Natsu and Gajeel. Straining toward the combatants, she was able to pick up the conversation.

"You call yourself dragon slayers, but you couldn't even slay a single measly dragon?" Sting was saying, a huge smirk on his face. "Dragon wimps is more like it. Both of us killed dragons when we were still children."

"You talk a lot," Natsu said, trying to look bored. But Erza could see from his eyes that he was actually eager to start this fight. "If you killed your dragons when you were children, then your power will show here."

She then watched as he leaned forward, his voice getting louder so that the whole stadium could hear. "But you better hope you're not making it up, because if you don't have the power to kill dragons, you've already lost this battle."

"We'll see about that," Sting sneered, and Rogue broke his silence for a moment to agree with his partner. "The twin dragons of Sabertooth have never lost together, and we're not about to start now."

"Once again, you talk a lot." Natsu said, yawning. "Why don't you save all that for the battlefield?"

"You'll be singing a different tune after we're done," Sting said, glaring at the dragon slayer. "I'll teach you not to make light of Sabertooth."

"Ooh, I'm so scared…" Natsu said, his sarcasm evident. Erza could tell that he was intentionally angering his opponent, possibly hoping for a better fight and a fuller display of the other dragon slayer's power. But she'd seen Sting and Rogue fight before, and she knew that the pink-haired mage was in for a disappointment.

Then Chapati spoke the words that everyone was waiting for. "And now the final fight of the day: the twin dragons of Sabertooth vs. Natsu Dragneel and Gajeel Redfox. Third generation dragon slayers face off against the first generation. Which will win? We'll soon find out."

A toothy grin spread over Natsu's face. "I'm all fired up."


	12. Chapter 12

**I don't own Fairy Tail. Mashima does. Etc. etc.

So here's chapter 12... I saw reviewers both anticipating the fight and thinking it would be boring. Hopefully nobody's too disappointed in the battle. I think everyone will be fairly surprised.

Also, without giving too much away as far as the eclipse portal, well, there may be more than 7 dragons, plus some unexpected guests... It definitely isn't going according to Canon**

* * *

Natsu smirked as the two dragon slayers from Sabertooth stood across from him and Gajeel. He did his best to keep from getting too excited about this battle. After Erza and Mira's warnings that the dragon slayers weren't nearly at the level he was hoping to see them at, he tried to think of this as just another boring battle. But he couldn't fully bring himself too. He craved excitement, and so far finding more dragon slayers, who claimed to have killed dragons no less, left him hoping that their magic power was much stronger than it seemed. Perhaps they were just really good at keeping it hidden.

So, standing across from them, he felt the thrill of battle raging once more through his veins. He knew the air around him was heating up slightly. He could see it in the way perspiration was forming on the other combatants forehead. He could smell the temperature difference in the air itself. He could see that even those in the front rows of the stadium were slightly affected, but he didn't really care. This was a battle he was looking forward to for a long time, and a little heat wasn't going to hurt anyone anyway.

When the match was officially started, he didn't move a step. He wanted to let them attack first. Gauge their strength so he could determine whether these were indeed opponents he could have fun fighting. From the corner of his eye he could see Gajeel doing the same, standing absolutely still, waiting for their opponents to come at them.

"Light dragon's roar!" As the white roar enveloped him, Natsu felt the first inklings of disappointment filtering through the excitement that burned in him. If the power level of this opening move was any indicator, this dragon slayer had a long way to go before he could ever think of touching a dragon, let alone killing one. Still, a faint glimmer of hope held out that maybe, just maybe, the blonde dragon slayer - what was his name again? Stink? – was holding back to keep from injuring his opponent. Perhaps when he saw that the roar did no damage he would get more serious.

Yes. That had to be it. There was no way somebody this week killed a dragon, and when this dragon slayer claimed to kill a dragon his eyes showed that he fully believed what he was saying.

But when the roar cleared and the blonde saw Natsu still standing, unharmed by his attack, his eyes widened, his pupils dilating ever so slightly. Natsu sighed, deciding to let the other dragon slayer play out his attacks. Either he would reveal his true power or come to realize exactly how weak he really was. Once one or the other of these things happened, Natsu would know it was time to get serious.

"White Drive." Natsu's eyes narrowed as he felt Sting's magic power marginally increase. If this was his "dragon force," he had a long way to go still. He couldn't imagine Sting even coming close to Erza and Mira, let alone a dragon, with this power.

Though focused on Sting, from the corner of his eye he saw Rogue disappear into shadows, coming up from behind and decking Gajeel hard. The iron dragon slayer's body didn't even move from the impact. It appeared that he, like Natsu, was waiting for the fight to get real. Kick after punch glanced off his body, not one of them even coming close to doing damage. Natsu couldn't help being a little embarrassed as he realized this must be how Gildarts felt when he would constantly try to fight him as a child, and found it easier to forgive the old man for constantly brushing him off.

"Holy Nova!" This time Natsu and Gajeel did move, but not because the attack pushed them back. Rather, Sting and Rogue's combined attacks blew a large hole in the ground, knocking them down several levels. The dragon slayers hovered above them as though waiting to see if they'd finished the job.

Natsu turned to Gajeel with a sigh. "This is boring. I'm just gonna' finish these guys in one shot and put them in their place."

"Oh fuck no," Gajeel said. "You don't get to have all the fun, even if it's barely fun at all. I'm gonna' show these losers what a real dragon slayer is."

"Oh no you don't," Natsu turned to glare at the iron dragon slayer. "I've been waiting to kick their asses since we got here."

"Right back at ya," Gajeel turned toward him, glaring as well.

For a moment their eye contact broke as they were enveloped in shadow and white dragon roars, but when the spells faded Natsu wore a smirk.

"I think I know how to make this interesting," he said. "You wanna' be the one to kick their sorry asses, you have to fight me for the right to do it."

"Now that sounds like fun," Gajeel said, his own scowl transforming to a smirk. "Since we're in the arena, you can't use your most powerful spells just like I can't use mine. Should make for an even fight."

"Nothing above SSS rank," Natsu agreed. "We don't want Fairy Tail to be permanently banned."

"I'm surprised at you Salamander," Gajeel said, his smirk widening. "With your reputation, I'd expect the entire city to be destroyed by the time we're done."

"I'm gonna' wipe that smirk off your face," Natsu said with a grin that was almost wider than his face.

 **~~~~~~In the stands~~~~~~**

Erza stared at the screen, trying to get a glimpse of the dragon slayers. So far all they had was audio. The visual didn't seem to be functioning correctly yet.

"I can't believe it!" Chapati yelled over the microphone. "Not only are Fairy Tail's dragon slayers seemingly unhurt from all the attacks, from the audio we're getting it sounds like they plan to fight each other! Isn't that against the rules?"

Yajima shook his head. "There is no rule against fighting your teammate in a tag-team battle. My guess would be that the officials responsible for creating the rules in the grand magic games never thought they could possibly need such a rule."

Erza glanced over at Makarov, who had gone pale. He touched a communications lacrima, and she strained to hear what he was saying.

"Yes, this is urgent," he said in a hushed whisper into the lacrima. "Get a barrier up around the inside of the arena right away. Don't argue with me! If those to get serious there'll be nothing left of this place!"

She couldn't help a wry smile as she turned her attention back to the monitor. Surely the master was needlessly worried on this one. After her victory over Jura, she was confident that she might be a match for the dragon slayers after all, and she couldn't wait to find out if she was right.

"And we have visual," Chapati's voice announced as the screen showed Natsu and Gajeel facing off deep under Domus Flau. "It appears that the two are starting to attack. And Sting and Rogue are none too happy."

"That's their dragon force," Jenny announced happily as Erza looked at Sting and Rogue in the screen. They both seemed to have scales on their faces and arms, similar to how Natsu had appeared at the tower of heaven after eating etherion. "Those Fairy Tail slayers are gonna' be sorry now. There's no way they'll survive what's coming.

As Erza watched, Sting and Rogue initiated a rarely seen technique – a unison raid. Their white and shadow attacks combined into a swirling vortex of light and darkness, traveling toward Natsu and Gajeel as the two collided in their first attacks. There was a giant explosion, and the screen went dark again. This time, the video came back more quickly, and it showed Sting and Rogue, still panting, staring at Natsu and Gajeel, whose fire coated arms and steel-hard legs were clashing at incredible speeds.

"It appears that the twin slayers' legendary unison raid attack failed to scratch Natsu and Gajeel!" Chapati yelled. "Just how strong are these dragon slayers of Fairy Tail?!"

Suddenly Natsu jumped back, and Gajeel followed shortly, Natsu leapt into the air, his arms extend out to the side like wings, his foot pointed like a talon ready to strike. Fire enveloped him, and shot toward his opponent who countered with steel-infused punch.

Erza felt her confidence slipping away as the attacks collided and she watched fire and steel shoot up into the sky from below, obliterating all the rock above the dragon slayers. For an instant the air around her rose to extreme temperatures, like she'd just stepped into an oven. Then it cooled off, leaving her sweaty, her heart racing from the sheer power of the attacks.

Before she'd fully recovered, another explosion washed over her. She knew that if the master hadn't called for a magic barrier to be placed the entire arena would have to be evacuated immediately – if any of it still remained. The air was cool only for a moment before fire and iron again shot up into the sky in a shining, twisted spiral, entangled all the way to the heavens as each strove to overcome the other.

Her mind couldn't help echoing the sentiment just expressed by Chapati. _Just how strong have you become, Natsu?_

 **~~~~~~In the arena~~~~~~**

"Fire Dragon's Debilitating Whirlwind!" Natsu whipped his arms back and forth, great wings of fire forming behind him and beating the air. A tornado of fire rose over 200 feet into the air and spiraled toward Gajeel.

"Iron Dragon's Steel Wall!" A great wall shot up into the sky, and for the next few moments the temperature increased a hundredfold as the fire sought to break through the wall. Molten chunks of metal fell beneath the advancing whirlwind of fire, but the defense held. Soon both attacks fizzled out, leaving the dragon slayers facing each other again.

"Fire Dragon's Volcanic Fist!" He attacked again, a raging, superheated dragon fire building around his fist. He wouldn't dare use this attack against a normal wizard – even Erza, Jura, or gramps. But he knew Gajeel could take it. That was what made this fun.

"Iron Dragon's Crushing Talon!" The iron dragon slayer met his attack with an attack of his own, and once again their magics collided with such force that it seemed the spiraling column of iron and flame would never die out. They didn't have time to ponder this, however, as Gajeel attacked again without a moment's hesitation.

"Iron Dragon's Furious Wings!" Great wings of iron formed behind the dragon slayer and began beating mercilessly at Natsu, who beat them back with flame covered hands. Some of the strikes couldn't be fully blocked and connected with his chest and shoulders.

"That actually hurt, you bastard. Fire Dragon's Exploding Arrows!" A rain of arrows made fully of fire darted toward Gajeel from all directions, each exploding on impact. Several slipped past his guard, hitting him in the shoulder, neck, chest, and back.

"Right back at you," he growled, wiping a thin line of blood from his chin.

"Iron Dragon's Earth-Shattering Spear!" A giant spear formed in his hands. He lunged forward, throwing it at Natsu, who quickly launched another attack to keep the spear from reaching him. "Fire Dragon's Secret Art, Exploding Crimson Heavenward Sword!" A great sword of fire came out of the ground just in front of him, hitting the spear on the head just before it reached its destination. A massive explosion followed, launching the spear high into the air from the sheer force and knocking both dragon slayers back several feet. Natsu smirked at his opponent.

"I haven't had this much fun in a long time," Gajeel smirked.

"Same here," Natsu said with a grin, and the two charged each other for another round of hand-to-hand combat. Natsu leapt at the iron dragon slayer who came up to meet him, their hands and feet working furiously in the air. Still in the air they separated, each landing perfectly balanced on their feet.

And then Gajeel wobbled, his face turning green. Natsu looked at the iron dragon slayer in confusion. What could possibly be wrong with him? He looked at where Gajeel's feet were, firmly planted…

In a cart that miraculously survived their devastating attacks. Natsu felt an evil grin seeping over his face. The cart was on some kind of track, and all it would take would be a quick push to send it down into the depths below them.

"Don't… You… Dare…" Gajeel ground out as he attempted to exit the vehicle, but Natsu didn't give him time.

"See ya," he smirked as he hit the cart with a fast, but not too powerful attack, not wanting to break it. The cart rocketed down the track, Gajeel not managing to fall out as it sped away from the battlefield. Pleased and very amused with the outcome, Natsu turned back to teach the twin dragon slayers their lesson…

 **~~~~~~In the stands~~~~~~**

Erza watched as the cart, still carrying Gajeel, sped down the tracks away from the battle. Then Natsu, wearing a smirk, turned back to take on the Sabertooth mages.

Her gaze, with everyone else's, went to find the twin dragons of Sabertooth. Both had been surprisingly quiet for most of the fight. And now it became apparent why.

"What?!" Natsu raged on the screen, picking the two unconscious dragon slayer's up by their collars and shaking them like little children. "How the fuck can you be knocked out from that?! Damn it! Now how am I supposed to brag to Gajeel about winning our fight?! It was all for nothing if we don't know who knocked your sorry asses out!"

"What-what happened?" Chapati stuttered over the microphone.

Yajima, a slight tremble in his usually dead-even voice, responded. "It seems that Sabertooth's dragon slayers were caught in the collateral damage of the attacks… The match goes to Fairy Tail."

"I see, the dragon slayers of Fairy Tail are truly incredible!" Chapati yelled.

"Anything you'd like to add, Jenny?" Yajima asked the young women, but she didn't respond. She was staring at the destroyed stadium, her face as white as a ghost. Erza couldn't help smirking a bit at the sight, and she looked over to see Mirajane smirking as well. She knew the white-haired woman must be loving this moment. She couldn't help grinning a bit when Mira stuck her tongue out at Jenny, even though the blonde didn't seem to notice.

Just then the king approached the emcee booth and whispered something to Chapati. The man nodded, then cleared his throat.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" He said. "That marks the end of today's magic games. Please go enjoy the capital while our royal magicians remake Domus Flau."

With that people muttered and began dispersing. Erza saw a med team rush out to the arena and check the dragon slayers on the ground. They checked their vitals and then proceeded to run a quick magic scan, then quickly loaded them up on cots and rushed them off the battlefield. She then glanced over to Sabertooth's booth. Jiemma, their master, was fuming. Minerva, who had yet to compete in the games, looked like she didn't know whether to be angry or turned on by what she just witnessed. The rest were just looking on with varying degrees of shock and/or dismay.

She then spared a glance toward Lamia Scale. The reactions there were similar. Jura seemed the least fazed by the events, but by the way he stared hard at the devastation before them Erza could see that he was disconcerted by the battle.

Glancing over at the other team, she saw that the realization was beginning to strike them that eventually – in the battle at the end if not before – they were going to have to fight the dragons. Dragons, because one could hardly call them dragon slayers anymore. Here, with only a portion of their power, they destroyed everything inside the magic barrier and knocked out two strong opponents with just the collateral damage from their attacks. She remembered Natsu's comment at the beginning of the match…

 _"_ _Nothing more than SSS attacks…"_ But that would mean they had intentionally _limited_ themselves to spells that could rank as high as the top wizard saint, God Serena. The traitor. How could someone betray their own homeland the way he did? What was his purpose? More power? Stronger allies?

But she was digressing. For the dragon slayers to limit themselves to this kind of power could only mean they had more available to them. And who knows how much more? Neither of them had activated their dragon force the entire time! And when Natsu was still weaker dragon force gave him the power to overcome Jellal, who at the time was one of the 10 wizard saints!

Furthermore, it seemed the dragon slayers, even though they previously were only loosely connected by their common magic, had formed a tight-knit clique in the guild. She couldn't be the only one that noticed it! The most recent example was this mysterious cloaked figure. Natsu told her he 'got away,' but she knew he was hiding something. Maybe not directly lying, but definitely hiding something. And Gajeel just went right along with him. Even before that, they grouped up at the guild, each ready to defend the other no matter what. Even Laxus seemed to be affected by whatever was happening, much to the chagrin of the Raijinshuu. He barely communicated with his former team now beyond responding to their attempts at conversation.

But then, she really couldn't blame them. They'd spent the last 7 years experiencing a new world together, fighting together, and growing up together. It was only natural for them to form a unique bond during that time.

Her mind then returned to the mysterious cloaked figure who seemed to be tainted by Zeref's magic, at least according to Crime Sorciere. Who was he, and what was he doing at the games? And, most of all, why wouldn't Natsu and Gajeel say more about their encounter with him? What were they hiding?

She would find out. Perhaps she couldn't instill fear into Natsu the way she used to, but she had other ways of getting information. The way she saw it she had two options. One, catch the cloaked figure herself so she could see his face with her own eyes. Two, get the information from somebody else the dragon slayers might talk to about it.

She wasn't sure that she wanted to try Wendy. A heated conversation with a pregnant dragon slayer just screamed bad idea. But Levy… Gajeel might talk to Levy about what happened. And surely Levy could be persuaded to share.

Erza went back to the inn that night with a plan.

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So there it is. Read and review as always. :D


	13. Chapter 13

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. They belong to Mashima

So, as one reviewer pointed out, I inadvertently placed Lucy back in the timeline after she had her magic drained and was in the infirmary. Cana was supposed to be there instead. I'll go back there and fix it eventually, but till then, wherever Lucy is seen in the games when she's not supposed to be there, just pretend it says Cana.

Another reviewer noted that Jura went up a rank between chapters. I was kind of hoping nobody would notice, but I decided to have him ranked between Erza and Mira instead of behind both. Thought it would make things seem a little more balanced. I'll eventually go back and change his rank in the original chapter as well.

And finally, sorry it took so long to update. I was in a real rut with this story for the longest time, but hopefully this will be satisfactory.

Read and review as always!**

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*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Natsu started awake at the sudden pounding at the door, his mind instantly alert and active. Next to him, he felt Wendy stirring softly under the covers.

With an irritated snarl, he shoved his feet out onto the ground. Who the fuck would be knocking on their door at this time of night? Well, judging by the faint lightening of the eastern sky, early morning. But still. Couldn't they have the decency to wait till they were awake and out of their rooms? What could possibly be so urgent?

His feet mechanically traced a path across the floor to the door, which he opened. But nobody was there. His scowl deepening, he stuck his head out into the hallway as a scent that was very familiar registered in his mind. But before he even had time to identify the scent a pillar of iron smashed into his face, knocking him back through the door. He winced, coiling his legs in and planting his feet backward as his body flew across the room. He felt the impact with the opposite wall, and used it to launch himself back across the room to face his assailant.

"That was for yesterday," the iron dragon slayer standing in the doorway glared at him. "But more important, there's something you and Wendy need to see."

Natsu relaxed his guard slowly, returning the black-haired man's glare. "Something we need to see?"

"Yes. It involves all the dragon slayers, really." Gajeel said, his glare turning to a bit of a smirk.

"Oh, then why didn't you bring Laxus?" Natsu asked, still not fully trusting him.

"I did. Lightning breath said he would sniff us out after he had a few minutes to 'wake up.' He should be along any minute."

Barely had the last word escaped his lips when a burst of lightning suddenly appeared in the room. When it faded, Laxus was in its place, his spiky headphones covering his ears. He spared Natsu a glance and a quick nod before glaring at Gajeel.

"This better be good steel brains," he said, his tone as irritable as the scrunched together eyebrows and the downturn of his lips. "Cause I won't hesitate to beat the shit out of you if you woke me up for a little stroll around the palace gardens."

"Just come on," Gajeel retorted, turning to head out the door. "You'll see when we get there."

Natsu shrugged and followed the iron dragon slayer out into the slightly brisk morning air. A pale blue appeared in the far eastern horizon as they made their way out toward Domus Flau, and then down into a subsystem below the arena. Not much was said as the group moved slowly along. Normally Natsu would've tried to make conversation, but it was barely dawn, and it wasn't like he went to sleep in his room at midnight.

On they went till Natsu noticed a strange Aura up ahead through the caves. Apparently Laxus could sense it too, for his attitude changed noticeably as they continued to close in on the space. Natsu couldn't tell what exactly the aura represented. He never felt anything like it before, at least on Earthland. If anything, it was like a faint echo of the powerful magic they felt when massacring dragons in the other world. But why would there be any kind of dragon magic, even faint echoes of magic long since spent, in a place like this?

Then the cavern opened up in front of them, and Natsu felt his breath inhale sharply even as the sound of similar reactions from the others reached his ears. Before them was an enormous cave, bigger than any he'd seen before – even in the dugout villages that people used to hide from dragons in the other world. But what drew his attention more was the floor of the cave. The floor was littered with giant bones.

"What happened here?" The question escaped Wendy who stood next to him as they stared at the awe-inspiring sight.

"I was hoping maybe we could figure that out, with a little help from our resident sky dragon."

Natsu looked at Wendy, a little concerned. As far along as she was in pregnancy, he didn't know if it was advisable for her to attempt a spell as draining as Milky Way could be. Still, he couldn't deny his own curiosity about what could possibly have led to so many dragon bones being scattered around in an underground cavern like this.

Wendy seemed to know what he was thinking from his look, and nodded softly. "I'll be ok. I want to know what happened here as much as the rest of you," she assured him.

He nodded, then stepped back as she began the casting. After casting the initial spell, she stood there with a look of fierce concentration.

"Most of the magic energy is long departed from this room, but I think I can feel a sliver…" With that her look of concentration increased, and translucent green dragon suddenly appeared before them.

"Why do I feel Grandeeney's magic?" Those were the first words out of the green dragon's mouth, and Natsu watched him warily. He could tell just by the amount of magic present that this was nothing more than a ghost. Still, he didn't know yet what ghosts were capable of, other than, apparently, casting some sort of magic shell that transported people to other dimensions… And fuck if that was going to happen again.

"It is my magic you feel," Wendy responded, her voice firm as she spoke to the green dragon. "I summoned you here with magic I learned from Grandeeney.

"You summoned me?" The dragon looked her up and down appraisingly. "You look like you would be delicious right about now…" The jaws suddenly opened and the head descended. Natsu didn't move, as he knew the ghost couldn't hurt Wendy, but he did glare at the green dragon.

"If we're done playing games," Wendy said seriously, "I want to know what happened here."

"Wow, you humans are no fun," Zirconis said, ignoring her as he looked at Natsu. "But I suppose I can see why. After all, you all have the smell of dragon blood on you." His eyes seemed to pierce Natsu's soul as he continued, "Especially you."

Natsu returned the icy gaze with his own fiery glare. "I believe the lady asked you a question."

"Of course, of course," the dragon laughed. "Very well. You want to know what happened here? I'll tell you…"

"400 years ago the dragons were the most powerful race in Fiore. And most of us wanted to keep it like that. The humans were one of our many sources of food, and nothing more. Sure, we let them build their cities. We let them play with magic. But nothing they did could touch us. We were the most powerful in all Earthland!"

"But there were some dragons who wanted to change all that. They thought that we could 'get along' with the humans. Play nice with them. Eventually the dragons split into two factions, with several powerful dragons in each of the factions. But the most powerful were on the human's side. Grandeeney, the sky dragon, Metalicana, the iron dragon, Skiadrum, the shadow dragon, Weisslogia, the white dragon, and of course Igneel, the fire dragon king. Those were the leaders of the human faction."

"I'm sure that your kind no longer remembers the dragon wars, but there were years, decades even, of fighting. And then one day the pro-human faction decided to teach your kind a magic meant to kill dragons. Dragon slayer magic. And so, the first dragon slayers were born…"

"One dragon slayer was particularly powerful. He was unstoppable, that one, and it wasn't long before his bloodlust became insatiable. He continued to destroy dragons, but no longer wanted to live peaceably with us. He attacked the peace faction and the other dragons indiscriminately, till finally he bathed in the blood of a thousand dragons, and himself became a dragon."

Just then his image began to fade out, and he offered them a last smirk. "My time here is almost done, but before I go I'll tell you the name of the dragon slayer who created this graveyard. The most feared dragon slayer of all time. His name is…. Acnologia."

Natsu's eyes shot wide open at this, but before he could question the green dragon further the ghost disappeared completely, and Wendy sank to her knees, breathing heavily. He quickly ran over and picked her up in his arms.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hold him any longer." She said quietly, resting her head on his shoulder.

"It's fine Wendy, you did great!" Natsu said.

"I can't believe it though…" she muttered, looking out over the bonefield. "Acnologia?"

"He was originally human?" Gajeel added from behind Natsu. He turned to see the iron dragon slayer staring out over the immense cavern and the dead bones that lay littered around it. "It doesn't seem possible."

"I wonder," Natsu said quietly. His mind returned to his own time spent with his fellow dragon slayers. What might've happened if it weren't for his relationship with Wendy? He could still remember the feeling. The need that bordered on insanity and could only be quelled by spilling the blood of a dragon. If Wendy hadn't stepped in when she did, could he have become like Acnologia? A man who destroyed the dragons only to become the very thing he destroyed?

But before he could dwell too much on it, he noticed a strange scent like strawberries drifting across his nose. He motioned for the others to quiet down as he turned, nodding his head in the direction of the scent.

"You smell someone Salamander? Gajeel asked, his voice hushed so that only the dragon slayers could hear it.

"Yep," Natsu whispered with a slight grin. "Someone with red hair. Don't know how long she's been there, but I'm gonna' surprise her… You guys keep talking."

As the voices resumed, Natsu headed quickly but quietly down the passage toward the scent, which was growing stronger. Apparently Erza was still moving closer to them by degrees. Perhaps she hadn't actually followed them, but had picked up their trail after they came down somehow. Either way, it was pretty clear she was trying to get her nose into their situation.

Once he was close enough that he knew she was right around the corner Natsu stopped, waiting to see if she would approach further. He was out of sight of the rest of them now, so he wouldn't be surprised if she continued on. Their voices were carrying far enough to reach his location. Feeling a slight smirk playing around the edges of his lips, Natsu pressed himself up against the wall of the barely lit passage, carefully suppressing his flames to give no indication of his presence.

It took a few minutes, but finally his patience was rewarded. Erza crept around the bend on the opposite wall, her eyes focused forward as she approached the voices of the other dragon slayers in the cavern beyond. Natsu fought back the urge to laugh as he slowly peeled off the wall, moving quickly and silently behind her. Her head turned instantly, her eyes directed at the spot he'd just evacuated.

"Boo," Natsu hissed in her ear, just quiet enough to still be a whisper but loud enough to startle her. He then caught the gauntleted hand that descended toward his head, smirking widely.

"NATSU!" Erza yelled. "What is the meaning of this?!"

Natsu laughed. "Oh, just smelt you trying to sneak up on us, you know. Figured I'd give you a little surprise." Then he started rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "What were you hoping to accomplish, sneaking up on us like that?"

Erza's face turned red. "I wasn't sneaking!" She denied. "I woke up and noticed Gajeel was gone, so I wanted to make sure you were all ok."

Natsu laughed at the denial. He wasn't really mad at Erza, though he was curious why she wanted to know what they were doing so badly. "So when you're tracking down your friends to 'make sure they're alright,' do you often tiptoe silently and try to keep out of sight?"

"There may have been other dangers," Erza defended herself.

Natsu just shrugged, showing he didn't believe her but knowing that there was no point arguing further. After all, it was likely that everything she was telling him now reflected what she told herself so she would feel justified in following them.

"Yeah, whatever Titania." Natsu looked over at Gajeel. Apparently he thought it needed to be a little more obvious that they weren't buying her story.

Natsu sighed. "Look Erza, if you wanted to know what we were doing you could've just asked later. We don't want to announce it to the world or anything, but it's not like we're trying to hide it."

"Then why did you sneak off in the middle of the night?" Erza asked, her arms folded across her chest now.

Natsu laughed, ignoring the raised hackles of Gajeel and Laxus. "We left early because we're all supposed to be competing in the games today, or have you forgotten? It wouldn't be good if we were down here researching dragon history while the event for the day is announced."

"Uh…" Natsu couldn't help smirking as Erza looked stumped for words again. He also felt the others relax slightly, but he didn't. A new smell had just reached him. Something that was faint, yet familiar. Like someone he knew, but different somehow.

"I'll be right back," he said, ignoring the protests from the other four present. He raced down the tunnel toward the odd scent, till he finally saw a cloaked figure making its way out of the tunnels. He stopped as the figure exited, quickly joining the throng of people. He stood there, staring after the fading hood in confusion.

 _It smelled like Lucy. But she had that same, strange magic on her that future Gray reeked of._ He felt more lost than ever now. First Gray came back from the future saying that he was here to avert a crisis, and now it looked as though Lucy had come back as well? What the fuck? How the was everyone just coming back from the future anyway? And why? How many other people were there? Was the whole fucking guild coming back?!

Natsu shook his head as he made his way back. Everything was just getting really complicated now, with all these visitors from the future, dragon spirits from the past. And of course Acnologia. What to do about him? If Acnologia was actually a dragon slayer, would dragon slayer magic have the same effect that it did on dragons?

Most likely not. When fighting Acnologia it would be a slayer on slayer battle. But then, he wondered if Acnologia could still assume human form. And if so, which was more powerful? His dragon form or his human form?

His mind returned to the brief encounter with Gildarts all those years ago. Although he was certain that he could beat the old man now, he was still a very powerful mage. For Acnologia to have done so much damage to him so easily was, if he was honest, quite terrifying.

He was approaching the rest of the group now, and the four were still involved in a conversation. Well, mainly Gajeel and Erza, whose foreheads were practically pressed together as they shot barbs back and forth. Wendy was the first one to notice his return.

"What happened?" She asked quietly as he approached.

He didn't respond immediately. Instead he went up to her, slipping his arms around her waist as Gajeel and Erza stopped fighting to look at him. "We'll talk later," he said with a faint smirk. "Things are getting even more complicated."

"Don't know how that's possible," Gajeel grumbled. "Where'd you run off to, Salamander?"

"I thought I smelled someone, but it turned out I was wrong." Natsu put on his best stupid grin, ignoring the annoyed glare Laxus gave him as he rubbed the back of his head.

"You haven't changed a bit," Erza scowled, her attention now diverted from the argument with Gajeel.

"Guess not. We'd better get back though. They're supposed to announce the rules for today's games soon, and I don't know about you guys but I'm famished."

Then he flashed his big, stupid grin again as he added. "Better hurry if you want any food. I've eaten the whole buffet more than once already."

With that he grabbed Wendy bridal-style and sprinted off through the caves, not giving the others a chance to retort. He soon heard Erza, Gajeel, and Laxus chasing him as they raced back up through the tunnels toward the hotel, and he couldn't help grinning at the nostalgia. Just like old times.

When they finally got to the arena, after eating of course, they were greeted by Makarov. The guild master wore a stern expression as he turned to them.

"Something wrong gramps?" Natsu asked, his eyes searching Makarov's face for a hint of what the problem might be.

"Yes something's wrong," Makarov said with a frown. "I've received word from the officials that none of our dragon slayers are allowed to compete in the games from now on. I have to entirely recreate team B, and I have nothing to work with!" As he finished he looked close to tears.

"Whaddya' mean gramps?" Natsu said with a giant grin plastered on his face. "You've got Erza. Just throw a few of the guys who made S class while we were gone on the team with her, and you'll be good to go."

"Don't make fun of me!" Makarov yelled. "You guys were supposed to be our ace in the hole in case team A couldn't win it this year! Now any team I assemble will have to rely on Erza to carry them!"

Natsu just shrugged, turning to head out of the arena. "Well that's a nice weight off. I'm gonna' explore till they actually announce the rules."

"I'm with you on that one." Gajeel said with a smirk.

"See ya gramps," Laxus waved, following the other two.

They were about to leave when Yajima approached Makarov. Natsu saw the older man whisper something in Makarov's ear. Then he stopped, focusing his attention on the conversation as he saw Makarov's face brighten a little.

"So I have to consolidate my teams into one now?" Makarov asked, an almost gleeful look on his face.

Yajima nodded. "Raven Tail was disqualified for breaking the rules. One of the tournament officials noticed something odd about Juvia's battle with Flare, so they investigated further. It came out that Raven Tail cheated during that match, using magic from the sidelines to negate Juvia's attack."

Natsu couldn't help smirking slightly. So the cheaters did get caught. Good. And Makarov would be happy now because he could put Erza on the 'consolidated' team with Mirajane. 2 wizard saints on one team would be more than enough to clean up here. In the meantime, he could go chill with Wendy for a little while before the games started.

 **~~~~~~In the palace~~~~~~**

"Well your majesty, what do you think?"

Hisui sat, watching the replay of the battle between slayers once more, her eyes wide at the display of power in front of her. Even the third time seeing this battle was not enough to fully grasp it. "It's unbelievable. But it is evidence that our source is speaking the truth. Who else could have predicted that the twin dragons of Sabertooth could become collateral damage to a duel between teammates?"

Arcadios nodded, his own eyes on the screen. "But for all that power, the source claims the dragon slayers don't succeed in eliminating the threat."

Hisui nodded, clenching her keys tightly in her hand. She didn't like it, but it was the only option they had left. "We must prepare the eclipse gate."

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So there you have it. Chapter 13. Read and review please!

Next update: up in the air between Flames Extinguished and Rekindled and Immortal Love


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